JP2008124555A - Program output system, server device, program output method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To estimate members of a family who possibly request to receive a video stream from past viewing tendencies and current activity states of individuals of the family, and to perform video quality control adapted to the viewing tendencies of the members of the family. <P>SOLUTION: A program output system has a server device which stores viewing tendency information including program attributes of a program that a viewer viewed and a viewing attitude of the viewer, determines a video quality of a program as a target of an accepted viewing request according to quality restriction information by using viewing tendency information corresponding to the program that one user requests to view and viewing tendency information corresponding to one or more view-request predicted programs that other users possibly view, and transmits a request to distribute the program including program identification information and determined quality information to a program distributing server device. Under restrictions of qualities of video within a certain range as to a plurality of programs to be distributed, the program output system can adjust video qualities of a plurality of programs to be respectively distributed to a plurality of viewers and distribute the plurality of programs. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a program output system that distributes and outputs programs and the like.

  Conventionally, there has been a proposal of a video quality control method that takes into account the viewing mode of a user's program or the like (see Non-Patent Document 1). In this video quality control method, the quality of video to be distributed is controlled according to the user's viewing mode (such as zapping / watching / viewing / viewing) for the video distribution service in the small-scale best effort network. This method is based on the idea that there is no problem even if the quality of the video is low when other work is performed, and the video frame rate when the video screen is not watched is very small, The method that distributes high-quality video only to is adopted. As a result, wasteful video distribution traffic that consumes a lot of bandwidth even when not dedicated to viewing is reduced, and the limited small bandwidth can be used effectively with the statistical effect of viewing requests. Become.

  In addition, there is the following technique that dynamically adjusts the quality based on changes in streaming constraints (see Patent Document 1). That is, the present technology is a method for dynamic quality adjustment of a digital medium based on a change in streaming constraint. First, the digital media server sends a digital media stream to the requesting client according to a set of streaming constraints. The client then sends a request to the digital media server over the control network, indicating that it no longer wants the particular type of information. In response to receiving this signal, the video server stops sending that particular type of information to the sending client. As a result, streaming restrictions are relaxed. When a viewer signals that a particular type of information is not desired, that particular type of information is not sent to that client, thereby reducing streaming restrictions on the video streaming service and to the sending client. Digital media information with improved quality can be sent to any client that uses a freed portion of previously allocated bandwidth.

  In addition, as a related technique, there is a system that automatically acquires information on personal preferences from a video obtained by shooting a user's behavior when watching TV (Non-patent Document 2). This system uses a hidden Markov model that learns the pattern of changes in the user's face when there is interest from a pre-prepared captured video with an interest section, and the user is interested in watching TV. The interest interval estimation method is used to estimate the interval.

  Further, as a related technique, there is a technique for sharing a bandwidth to a person who receives a video stream (Non-patent Document 3).

Furthermore, the background of the present invention is as follows. In other words, for example, when the spread of server-type broadcasts enables each family member to receive a video stream that suits their preferences at a desired timing, while receiving a plurality of video streams is required, Since the communication band of the last mile to the home is limited, when each family member receives the video stream, it is necessary to adjust the video quality in consideration of the available communication band.
Japanese translation of PCT publication No. 2004-507958 (first page, FIG. 1 etc.) Yuka Kato, 1 other, "Proposal of video quality control method considering user viewing style", IEICE, IEICE CQ2003-37, 2003 Makoto Yamamoto and two others, "Estimation of interest intervals when watching TV to acquire personal preferences", Image Recognition and Understanding Symposium (MIRU2006), July 2006 P. Mehra, C and two others, "Receiver-driven bandwidth sharing for TCP and its application to video streaming", IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, 2005

  However, in the above-described conventional system and method, the video quality of the plurality of programs distributed to each of the plurality of viewers is limited under the restriction of the video quality within a certain range for the plurality of programs to be distributed. There was a problem that a plurality of programs could not be distributed after adjustment.

  Specifically, for example, in the conventional system or method, if there is a restriction on the communication bandwidth that can be used for program distribution in one household, the video quality of the program that can be viewed by multiple family members is adjusted, It was not possible to improve the satisfaction regarding the quality of the total multimedia among multiple family members.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to adjust the video quality of a program that can be viewed by a plurality of family members, and to improve the satisfaction regarding the quality of the total multimedia of the plurality of family members. More specifically, for example, information acquired from a long-term viewpoint such as profile information of a person, information on past behavior, etc., with respect to an information communication infrastructure commonly used by a plurality of family members, Of the information obtained from a short-term perspective, such as information on each person's request that occurs from time to time and information on the situation in which each person is placed at the time, the total multimedia of multiple people using one or more information The purpose is to mediate resource allocation of limited information and communication infrastructure so as to improve satisfaction with quality.

  That is, the present invention estimates, for example, family members who may request the reception of a video stream from the past viewing tendency and current behavior of each family member, and adapts to the viewing tendency of those family members. The purpose is to control video quality. Thereby, it is possible to realize a control system that reflects the viewing tendency of each person and maximizes the satisfaction of the whole family while satisfying quality requirements as much as possible.

  A program output system according to a first aspect of the present invention includes a program output device that outputs a program, a server device that receives the program and sends it to the program output device, and a program distribution server device that distributes the program. The program output device includes a reception unit that receives a viewing request having program identification information that is a program viewing request from a viewer and is information for identifying the program, and a viewer who has input the viewing request. A viewer identification information acquisition unit that acquires viewer identification information that is information for identifying the viewer, a request transmission unit that transmits the viewing request and the viewer identification information to the server device, and a program corresponding to the viewing request. A program receiving unit that receives from the server device; and a program output unit that outputs a program received by the program receiving unit, wherein the server device includes viewer identification information for identifying a viewer of the program; A viewing tendency information storage unit for storing at least two pieces of viewing tendency information having viewing history information including program attributes including genre information of the viewed program, which is information relating to the viewing history of the program of the viewer; A request receiving unit that receives the viewing request and the viewer identification information from a device, and one or more viewing tendency information corresponding to one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit. One or more viewing candidates that are viewers other than the viewer who has input the viewing request may request viewing during the broadcast time of the program requested by the viewing request. A quality restriction information storing information about a restriction on the quality of a video when a viewing request predicting program determining unit for determining a viewing request predicting program for the video and a program for receiving two or more programs at the same time are stored. An information storage unit, viewing tendency information of a program related to a program requested by the receiving unit received by the receiving unit, and a program related to one or more viewing request predicted programs determined by the viewing request predicted program determining unit Using the viewing tendency information, in accordance with the quality constraint information, a quality determining unit that determines the video quality of the program that is the target of the viewing request received by the receiving unit, program identification information that identifies the program, and the quality A distribution request transmitting unit that transmits a distribution request for a program including quality information, which is information about video quality determined by the determining unit, to the program distribution server device, and the program corresponding to the transmission of the distribution request for the program A program relay receiving unit for receiving the program from the program distribution server device, and a program relay transmitting unit for transmitting the program received by the program relay receiving unit to the program output device. The server device sends a program distribution request including a program storage unit storing one or more programs, program identification information for identifying the programs, and quality information which is information about video quality constituting the programs. A distribution request receiving unit received from the distribution request receiving unit, a program acquisition unit for acquiring a program identified by the program identification information included in the distribution request received by the distribution request receiving unit, and a program acquired by the program acquisition unit Is a program output system including a program distribution unit that distributes to the server device with the quality of the video indicated by the quality information included in the distribution request.

  With this configuration, it is possible to output content with quality corresponding to the viewing tendency. At this time, for example, the viewing tendency of another person such as a family member who can view the content is acquired, and the quality can be determined in consideration of the whole.

  Further, in the program output system of the second invention, in contrast to the first invention, the viewer identification information acquisition unit shoots a viewer and acquires a video of the viewer, and a viewer A viewer information storage unit storing at least two pieces of viewer information including identification information and a viewer's video; and a video that matches the viewer's video captured by the imaging unit; Viewer video recognition means for recognizing the stored viewer video; and viewer video recognized by the viewer video recognition means as video that matches the video of the viewer taken by the photographing means; It is a program output system provided with a viewer identification information acquisition means for acquiring a pair of viewer identification information.

  With this configuration, viewer identification information can be automatically acquired with high accuracy.

  The program output system according to the third aspect of the present invention is the program output system according to the third aspect, wherein the viewing request prediction program determination unit is configured to determine the program identification information of the broadcast program and the program identified by the program identification information. Program guide information storage storing program guide information including one or more program information having program attribute having time zone information indicating a broadcast time zone and genre information indicating a genre of a program identified by the program identification information. Means for obtaining time zone information that is paired with program identification information included in the viewing request, and the program guide information storage means, using the time zone information to search and Output candidate program information acquisition means for acquiring output candidate program information which is information about a program broadcast during the broadcast time of the requested program, and one or more excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit The viewer identification received by the request receiving unit from the output candidate program information acquired by the output candidate program information acquisition means using one or more program attributes of one or more viewing tendency information corresponding to the viewer identification information Program output comprising viewing request predicted program information acquisition means for acquiring viewing request predicted program information that is information about a program that may be viewed by one or more viewing candidates identified by the viewer identification information excluding information System.

  With such a configuration, it is possible to accurately predict a program that the viewing candidate may request to view using the viewing history of the viewing candidate.

  In the program output system according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, in contrast to the first aspect, the viewing tendency information stored in the viewing tendency information storage unit indicates the viewing posture of the viewer with respect to the output program. And viewing attribute information, and a program attribute including genre information indicating the genre of the output program, and the viewing request prediction program determination unit includes the program identification information of the broadcast program and the program identification information. Storing program schedule information including time zone information indicating a broadcast time zone of a program to be identified and one or more program information having program attributes having genre information indicating a genre of the program identified by the program identification information. Program schedule information storage means, requested program time zone information acquisition means for acquiring time zone information paired with program identification information included in the viewing request, and the program schedule information storage means. Output candidate program information acquisition means for acquiring output candidate program information, which is information about a program broadcast during the broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed, and the viewing received by the request receiving unit From the output candidate program information acquired by the output candidate program information acquisition means using one or more program attributes of one or more viewing tendency information corresponding to one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information. A viewing request prediction program having program attributes, which is information about a program that can be viewed by one or more viewing candidates identified by one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the receiving unit. Viewing request predicted program information acquisition means for acquiring information, wherein the quality determination unit performs the viewing request prediction number for each viewing request predicted program information acquired by the viewing request predicted program information acquisition means. The viewer who is predicted to view the program corresponding to the information has one or more program attributes and one or more viewing attitude information included in the one or more pieces of viewing tendency information corresponding to another program that has been viewed. The viewing method information acquisition unit acquired from the information storage unit and a program attribute that matches the program attribute of the viewing request prediction program information are selected from one or more program attributes acquired by the viewing method information acquisition unit, and the selection Viewing attitude information selection means for selecting one or more viewing attitude information to be paired with the programmed program attribute, and one or more viewing attitude information selected by the viewing attitude information selection means. Predicted viewing attitude information acquisition means for acquiring predicted viewing attitude information, which is the viewing attitude information of the corresponding program, and the program number identified by the program identification information included in the viewing request received by the request receiving unit The viewing request program attribute acquisition unit that acquires the group attribute from the program guide information storage unit, and the program attribute that matches the program attribute acquired by the viewing request program attribute acquisition unit, and is acquired by the viewer identification information acquisition unit Viewing requester program attribute acquisition means for acquiring one or more program attributes of one or more viewing tendency information that is information about a program viewed by the viewer identified by the viewer identification information, and the viewing requester program Viewing requester viewing attitude information acquisition means for acquiring viewing attitude information of a program corresponding to one or more program attributes acquired by the attribute acquisition means, and the viewing requester viewing attitude information acquisition means acquired in accordance with the quality constraint information Using the posture information and the predicted viewing posture information acquired by the predicted viewing posture information acquisition unit, the video quality of the program that is the target of the viewing request received by the receiving unit is determined. A program output system including the quality determining means.

  With such a configuration, it is possible to determine the video quality with high accuracy by using information regarding the viewing attitude when the viewer has viewed the program in the past.

  In addition to the program output device, the server device, and the program distribution server device, the program output system of the fifth invention further includes a viewing tendency information acquisition device that acquires viewing tendency information in addition to the program output device, the server device, and the program distribution server device. The viewing tendency information acquisition device includes a viewing posture information acquisition unit that acquires viewing posture information that is information indicating a viewing posture that can be acquired from a viewer's behavior with respect to a program output by the program output unit of the program output device. Viewing tendency information using the viewer identification information acquired by the viewer identification information acquisition unit, the program attributes of the program output by the program output unit, and the viewing posture information acquired by the viewing posture information acquisition unit. And a viewing tendency information sending unit for sending the viewing tendency information constituted by the viewing tendency information constituting unit to the server device, and the server device includes: A viewing trend information receiving unit that receives viewing trend information from the listening trend information acquisition device, and a viewing trend information storage unit that stores the viewing trend information received by the viewing trend information reception unit in the viewing trend information storage unit Output system.

  With this configuration, viewing posture information can be automatically acquired.

  Further, in the program output system of the sixth invention, in contrast to the fifth invention, the viewing attitude information includes attention degree information which is information indicating a degree of attention paid to the program being output by the viewer. And the viewing attitude information acquisition unit includes viewing frequency information that is information about a frequency that is suitable for a display that outputs a program being viewed by the viewer from a viewer's video captured by a camera. One or more means of acquisition frequency information acquisition means to acquire, or distance information acquisition means to acquire distance information which is the distance between the viewer and the display that is outputting the program, the viewing frequency It is a program output system in which the attention level information is configured by using one or more pieces of information and the distance information.

  With this configuration, attention level information constituting the viewing posture information can be automatically acquired.

  Further, in the program output system of the seventh invention, in contrast to the fifth invention, the viewing attitude information includes viewing style information that is information for specifying a viewing style when the viewer views the program. The viewing attitude information acquisition unit determines at least concentrated viewing or non-concentrated viewing using command acquisition means for acquiring one or more instructions for switching channels and one or more instructions acquired by the instruction acquisition means. The program output system further includes viewing style information acquisition means for acquiring viewing style information that is information about whether or not to perform intensive viewing.

  With this configuration, it is possible to automatically acquire viewing style information constituting viewing posture information.

  In the program output system according to the eighth aspect of the present invention, in contrast to the first aspect of the invention, the viewing request prediction program determination unit determines the program identification information of the broadcast program and the program identified by the program identification information. Program guide information storage storing program guide information including one or more program information having program attribute having time zone information indicating a broadcast time zone and genre information indicating a genre of a program identified by the program identification information. Means, a requested program time zone information obtaining means for obtaining time zone information paired with the program identification information included in the viewing request, and a time zone indicated by the time zone information obtained by the requested program time zone information obtaining means, Behavior status information acquisition means for acquiring behavior status information which is information indicating the behavior and status of each viewing candidate identified by the one or more viewing candidate identification information, and the viewer who has input the viewing request One or more viewing candidates who are outside viewers, and from the behavior status information acquired by the behavior status information acquisition means, the program is displayed in the time zone indicated by the time zone information acquired by the requested program time zone information acquisition means. The viewing candidate identification information acquisition means for acquiring one or more viewing candidate identification information, which is information for identifying one or more viewing candidates that can be viewed, and the program guide information storage means, using the time zone information. Output candidate program information acquiring means for acquiring output candidate program information, which is information about a program broadcast during the broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed, and 1 corresponding to the viewing candidate identification information One or more viewing candidates identified by the viewing candidate identification information from the output candidate program information acquired by the output candidate program information acquisition means using one or more program attributes included in the viewing tendency information. There is a program output system comprising a viewing request prediction program information acquisition means for acquiring a viewing request prediction program information is information about programs that may view.

  With this configuration, a true viewing candidate can be determined using the behavioral status of the viewing candidate.

    In the program output system of the ninth aspect of the invention, in contrast to the eighth aspect of the invention, the behavior status information acquisition means is identified by each viewer identification information paired with one or more viewer identification information. Schedule information storage means for storing schedule information indicating the action schedule of each viewing candidate is provided, and the viewing candidate identification information acquisition means uses schedule information indicating the action schedule of each viewing candidate, It is determined whether each viewing candidate identified by the one or more viewing candidate identification information can view the program in the time zone indicated by the time zone information acquired by the requested program time zone information acquisition means. A program output system comprising viewing possibility determination means.

  With this configuration, the behavior status information can be automatically acquired from a so-called scheduler.

  The program output system according to the tenth aspect of the present invention is the information on the current position of each viewing candidate identified by the one or more viewer identification information. Viewing candidate position information acquisition means for receiving certain position information, wherein the viewing candidate identification information acquisition means stores program output position information, which is program output position information that is information on the position at which the program is output. Using the storage means, the position information of each viewing candidate acquired by the viewing candidate position information acquisition means, and the program output position information, each viewing candidate acquired by the requested program time zone information acquisition means It is a program output system provided with a viewability judging means for judging whether or not a program can be viewed in a time zone indicated by time zone information.

  With this configuration, the behavior status information can be automatically acquired from position information that is information on the current position of each viewing candidate.

  The program output system according to the present invention adjusts the video quality of a plurality of programs to be distributed to a plurality of viewers under the restriction of the quality of a video within a certain range for the plurality of programs to be distributed. Thus, a plurality of programs can be distributed.

Hereinafter, embodiments of a program output system and the like will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, since the component which attached | subjected the same code | symbol in embodiment performs the same operation | movement, re-explanation may be abbreviate | omitted.
(Embodiment 1)

  In the present embodiment, a video (content) having a quality corresponding to the viewing tendency of programs of a plurality of people is output. At that time, a program output system that acquires a viewing tendency of a program of a family member who has a possibility of viewing (when mediating in a home), determines the quality in consideration of the whole, and requests is described.

  FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a program output system in the present embodiment. The program output system includes a program output device 11, a server device 12, and a program distribution server device 13. The program output device 11 is a device that outputs a program, and is, for example, a television, a so-called STB and display, or the like. The program output device 11 is connected to the server device 12 via a wireless or wired network. The server device 12 receives a program from the program distribution server device 13 and sends the program to the program output device 11. The server device 12 is, for example, a so-called home server. Furthermore, the program distribution server device 13 is a server that distributes a program to the server device 12 in accordance with a request from the server device 12, and may be a VOD or NVOD server device. This program output system usually includes two or more program output devices 11 (11 (1), 11 (2)...). In addition, the structure which can divide | segment a window and can output a some program with the one program output apparatus 11 by one program output apparatus 11 may be sufficient.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the program output system in the present embodiment. The program output device 11 includes a reception unit 1101, a viewer identification information acquisition unit 1102, a request transmission unit 1103, a program reception unit 1104, and a program output unit 1105.

  The viewer identification information acquisition unit 1102 includes a photographing unit 11021, a viewer information storage unit 11022, a viewer video recognition unit 11023, and a viewer identification information acquisition unit 11024.

  The server device 12 includes a viewing tendency information storage unit 1201, a request receiving unit 1202, a viewing request predicted program determining unit 1203, a quality constraint information storing unit 1204, a quality determining unit 1205, a distribution request transmitting unit 1206, a program relay receiving unit 1207, a program A relay transmission unit 1208 is provided.

  The viewing request predicted program determination unit 1203 includes a program guide information storage unit 12031, requested program time zone information acquisition unit 12032, output candidate program information acquisition unit 12033, and viewing request prediction program information acquisition unit 12034.

  The program distribution server device 13 includes a program storage unit 1301, a distribution request reception unit 1302, a program acquisition unit 1303, and a program distribution unit 1304.

  The accepting unit 1101 is a request for viewing a program from the viewer, and accepts a viewing request having program identification information that is information for identifying the program. The receiving unit 1101 also receives various commands and requests such as volume up / down, power on / off, menu display, and the like. More specifically, the reception unit 1101 receives a signal from a remote controller (not shown). In addition, the reception unit 1101 receives a press of a button or switch on the main body of the program output device 11 by a viewer. In addition, the reception unit 1101 may receive a command from other input means (such as a mobile phone). The viewing request is input by, for example, a channel change command, input by selecting a program using an electronic program guide (hereinafter referred to as “EPG” as appropriate), or input by a voice instruction using a voice interaction interface. Or The input means such as a viewing request may be anything such as a numeric keypad, a keyboard, a mouse, or a menu screen. The accepting unit 1101 can be realized by a device driver for input means such as a numeric keypad or a keyboard, control software for a menu screen, and the like. The program is usually a program distributed using communication means, but may include a movie or content distributed by VOD or NVOD. In addition, a program usually includes video information and audio information, but only video information or audio information may be included, and content including data such as HTML (including programs) may also be included. In addition, the data structure of the program does not matter.

  The viewer identification information acquisition unit 1102 acquires viewer identification information that is information for identifying the viewer who has input the viewing request. There are various methods for obtaining the viewer identification information. First, for example, the viewer identification information acquisition unit 1102 captures viewer identification information using a technique for recognizing the viewer, such as a face recognition technique, by photographing a viewer described later with a camera. For example, the viewer identification information acquisition unit 1102 may recognize the viewer by fingerprint authentication processing of the remote controller and acquire the viewer identification information. For example, the viewer identification information acquisition unit 1102 may receive a signal (viewer identification information) from an IC tag worn by the viewer and acquire the viewer identification information. Further, the viewer identification information acquisition unit 1102 may acquire the viewer identification information by specifying the viewer by recognizing the voice by having the viewer speak. Alternatively, the viewer may input the viewer identification information manually, and the viewer identification information acquisition unit 1102 may acquire the viewer identification information. In addition, the algorithm which acquires the viewer identification information of the viewer identification information acquisition part 1102 does not ask | require. The viewer identification information acquisition unit 1102 can be realized by, for example, a camera, its driver software, an MPU, a memory, and the like. The processing procedure of the viewer identification information acquisition unit 1102 is realized by software, for example, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The imaging means 11021 constituting the viewer identification information acquisition unit 1102 images the viewer and acquires the viewer's video. The photographing unit 11021 can be realized by, for example, a camera and its driver software.

  The viewer information storage unit 11022 stores two or more pieces of viewer information including viewer identification information and a viewer (a person who can be a viewer). Here, the viewer identification information is an ID or name for identifying the viewer. The viewer's video may be the viewer's video itself, or a feature vector obtained by extracting features from the viewer video. Since a technique for extracting a feature from a viewer video and obtaining a feature vector is a known technique, a description thereof will be omitted. The means for acquiring the viewer information in the viewer information storage means 11022 may be included in the program output device 11 or another device. The viewer information storage unit 11022 is preferably a non-volatile recording medium, but can also be realized by a volatile recording medium. It may be a non-volatile recording medium or a volatile recording medium.

  The viewer video recognition unit 11023 is a video that matches the viewer's video shot by the shooting unit 11021 and recognizes the viewer's video stored in the viewer information storage unit 11022. Here, “match” includes a case where the videos do not need to match exactly but are similar to the extent that they can be recognized as matching people. For example, the viewer video recognition unit 11023 may acquire a feature vector of the viewer's video shot by the shooting unit 11021 and perform processing for recognizing a video having the closest feature vector. Here, the “recognize video” processing is, for example, processing that specifies a target video recognized as a matching person or viewer identification information paired with the video. The viewer image recognition means 11023 can be usually realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the viewer video recognition unit 11023 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The viewer identification information acquisition unit 11024 includes viewer identification information that is paired with the viewer's video that the viewer video recognition unit 11023 recognizes as a video that matches the video of the viewer captured by the imaging unit 11021. It is read from the viewer information storage means 11022 and placed on the memory. The viewer identification information acquisition unit 11024 can usually be realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the viewer identification information acquisition unit 11024 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The request transmission unit 1103 transmits the viewing request and the viewer identification information to the server device 12. The viewing request has program identification information. The viewing request is, for example, “send program ID”. However, the viewing request may be only program identification information. The structure of the viewing request does not matter. The request transmission unit 1103 can be realized by wireless or wired communication means. Note that the data structure of the viewing request received by the receiving unit 1101 and the viewing request transmitted by the request transmitting unit 1103 may change. The two viewing requests may be information that specifies the same program and requests viewing.

  The program receiving unit 1104 normally receives a program corresponding to the viewing request from the server device 12. More specifically, the program receiving unit 1104 receives from the server device 12 a program identified by the program identification information included in the viewing request. Note that the program receiving unit 1104 may directly receive a program corresponding to the viewing request from the program distribution server device 13. The program receiving unit 1104 can be realized by wireless or wired communication means.

  The program output unit 1105 outputs the program received by the program receiving unit 1104. Here, the output is a concept including display on a display, sound output, transmission to an external apparatus (usually including a display device), accumulation in a recording medium (such as a hard disk or an optical disk), and the like. The output also includes projection using a projector. Since the concept of storage is included in the output, this system can also be used to control the video quality when recording a program. The program output unit 1105 may or may not include an output device such as a display or a speaker. The program output unit 1105 can be implemented by output device driver software, or output device driver software and an output device.

  The viewing tendency information storage unit 1201 stores two or more pieces of viewing tendency information including viewer identification information for identifying the viewer of the program and viewing history information which is information related to the viewing history of the program of the viewer. Note that the viewing history information usually includes a program attribute having genre information of the viewed program. However, the viewing history information may be only the viewing posture information described in the second and subsequent embodiments. Also, the viewing tendency information is usually acquired by a viewing tendency information acquisition device described later. The viewing tendency information acquired in the present embodiment is, for example, viewer identification information and program attributes of the viewed program. The program attribute has at least genre information. The program attributes may include, for example, a program title, day information indicating a broadcast day of the week, time zone information indicating a broadcast time period, outline information indicating an outline of a program, performer information indicating a performer, and the like. The program attribute is usually information included in so-called SI information. The viewing tendency information storage unit 1201 is preferably a nonvolatile recording medium, but can also be realized by a volatile recording medium.

  The request receiving unit 1202 receives a viewing request and viewer identification information from the program output device 11. The request receiving unit 1202 is preferably a wireless communication unit, but may be realized by a wireless or wired communication unit.

  The viewing request prediction program determination unit 1203 uses a piece of viewing tendency information corresponding to one or more pieces of viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request reception unit 1202, other than the viewer who inputs the viewing request. One or more viewing candidates who are viewers of the program determine one or more viewing request prediction programs that may be requested to be viewed during the broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed. Note that the viewing request predicted program determination unit 1203 may determine “0” for a program that may request viewing. The viewing request predicted program determination unit 1203 stores, for example, the viewer identification information of the entire family (plural people), and the viewer identification information received by the request reception unit 1202 among the plurality of viewer identification information. One or more pieces of viewer identification information are acquired. Then, the viewing request predicted program determination unit 1203 reads the viewing tendency information including the acquired one or more pieces of viewer identification information from the viewing tendency information storage unit 1201 for each viewer identification information. Then, the viewing request prediction program determination unit 1203 acquires and analyzes program attributes (for example, genre information) included in one or more viewing tendency information acquired for each viewer identification information, and obtains representative program attributes. Next, the viewing request predicted program determination unit 1203 acquires information on the broadcast time zone of the program requested to be viewed. Then, the viewing request predicted program determination unit 1203 acquires information on other programs broadcast in this broadcast time zone. Then, the viewing request prediction program determining unit 1203 obtains information on a program that matches or most closely matches the corresponding representative program attribute for each viewer identification information. Through the above processing, the viewing request predicted program determination unit 1203 obtains information (including program identification information) of one program that can be viewed for each viewer identification information. The viewing request predicted program determination unit 1203 can be usually realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the viewing request predicted program determination unit 1203 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded in a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The program guide information storage means 12031 shows program identification information of a broadcast program, time zone information indicating a broadcast time zone of the program identified by the program identification information, and a program genre identified by the program identification information. Program guide information including one or more pieces of program information having program attributes having genre information to be stored is stored. The program guide information storage unit 12031 stores, for example, so-called SI information. The program guide information is usually received and accumulated by means not shown. The program guide information storage unit 12031 is preferably a non-volatile recording medium, but can also be realized by a volatile recording medium.

  The requested program time zone information acquisition unit 12032 acquires the time zone information paired with the program identification information included in the viewing request from the program guide information storage unit 12031. The requested program time zone information acquisition unit 12032 acquires the program identification information included in the viewing request and places it on the memory. Next, the requested program time zone information acquisition unit 12032 reads the time zone information in the program attribute paired with the program identification information from the program guide information storage unit 12031 and arranges it on the memory. The requested program time zone information acquisition unit 12032 can be realized usually by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the requested program time zone information acquisition unit 12032 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The output candidate program information acquisition unit 12033 searches the program guide information storage unit 12031 using the time zone information, and is an output candidate program that is information about a program broadcast during the broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed. Get information. The output candidate program information may be only one or more pieces of program identification information, or may have one or more program attributes. The output candidate program information acquisition unit 12033 normally acquires output candidate program information that is information about a program that is broadcast even a little in the time zone indicated by the time zone information. For example, the output candidate program information acquisition unit 12033 is predetermined in the time zone indicated by the time zone information. Output candidate program information that is information about a program that is broadcast for more than an hour may be acquired, or an output candidate program that is information about a program that is broadcast in a time that is completely included in the time zone indicated by the time zone information Information may be acquired. The output candidate program information acquisition unit 12033 can usually be realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the output candidate program information acquisition unit 12033 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 uses one or more program attributes included in one or more viewing tendency information corresponding to one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit 1202. There is a possibility that one or more viewing candidates identified by the viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit 1202 from the output candidate program information acquired by the output candidate program information acquisition unit 12033 may watch. Viewing request prediction program information that is information about the program is acquired. For example, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 is viewing each viewer identified by one or more pieces of viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit 1202. The genre information having the largest number or ratio is determined from the viewing tendency information in the viewing tendency information storage unit 1201, and information (program identification information, etc.) of programs having genre information that matches the genre information is output to one or more Obtained from candidate program information. The viewing request predicted program information acquisition means 12034 uses one or more viewers identified by one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit 1202 using a viewability likelihood function. Information on programs that are highly likely to be viewed may be acquired. That is, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 acquires one or more viewing tendency information corresponding to one or more pieces of viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit 1202, and the one or more viewing tendency information is acquired. The attribute values of the plurality of program attributes included in the viewing tendency information, and one or more pieces of information about the program broadcast during the broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed, acquired by the output candidate program information acquisition unit 12033 Comparison with the attribute value of the program attribute included in the output candidate program information, the viewing tendency of the viewer identified by the one or more pieces of viewer identification information, and one or more attribute values of the one or more pieces of output candidate program information Similarity (viewability likelihood) is calculated, and viewing request predicted program information, which is information about the program, is acquired as a program that the viewing candidate may view the program having the maximum similarity. More specifically, first, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 obtains N (N is 1 or more) viewing tendency information (broadcast day) corresponding to the viewer identification information for each of one or more viewer identification information. , Broadcast time zone, program genre, and program keyword) from the viewing tendency information storage unit 1201. Then, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 reads one or more attribute values (assuming that it has a broadcast day, a broadcast time zone, a program genre, and a program keyword) of one or more pieces of output candidate program information. Then, for each output candidate program information, among the N viewing tendency information, a is the number of broadcast days that match, b is the number of broadcast time zones that match (include or overlap), and the program genre Is calculated as c, and the number of matched program keywords is calculated as d. Then, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 obtains “α · (a / N) + β · (b / N) + γ · (c / N) + σ · (d / N)” for each output candidate program information. calculate. This “α · (a / N) + β · (b / N) + γ · (c / N) + δ · (d / N)” is a viewability likelihood function. Α, β, γ, and δ are coefficients indicating weights, and normally satisfy “0 <= α, β, γ, δ <= 1” and “α + β + γ + δ = 1”. Then, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 selects a program corresponding to the output candidate program information having the maximum value among the execution values of the viewability likelihood function calculated for each output candidate program information. It is determined that the program is likely to be viewed by a viewing candidate. Note that “program keyword matches” means, for example, the similarity of “program overview”, which is one of the program attributes, is indexed by the number of matching keywords determined by the tf / idf method, and the similarity equal to or greater than a threshold value In this case, it is determined that “program keywords match”. Since the tf / idf method is a known technique, detailed description thereof is omitted. By the above-described processing of the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034, for example, it is possible to appropriately predict whether or not to make a viewing request from the viewing tendency of family members. That is, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 uses the habits of family members' daily activities. When looking at the life of family members on a weekly basis, it is thought that the same behavior is often taken every day of the week, and the broadcast program itself is also a weekly unit. In addition, regarding the broadcast time, it is considered that the time for the family to watch has a certain tendency and is different for each family. (Example: Mothers watch during daytime, children in the evening, fathers at night, etc.) Therefore, the more times the program on the same day is viewed and the more the program is viewed on the same time zone, the higher the possibility of viewing a certain program. On the other hand, family willingness to watch depends on the contents of the program. In other words, the more times a program of the same genre as a program is viewed, and the higher the similarity of the program overview, the higher the possibility of viewing that program. Further, as described above, the similarity level of the program outline is indexed by, for example, the number of keyword matches obtained by the tf / idf method. From the above, the degree of coincidence of the time period, day of the week, genre, and program overview with a past program for a certain program is required, so the weighted score is added and the program is requested if the total score is high The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 performs processing.

  The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 can be usually realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded in a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

The quality constraint information storage unit 1204 stores quality constraint information, which is information about constraints on video quality when two or more programs are received simultaneously. The quality constraint information is, for example, information on the communication bandwidth allocated to one household. The quality constraint information is information indicating the upper limit of the number of frames per second that can be transmitted to one household, for example. The quality constraint information is, for example, information indicating an upper limit of communication bandwidth that can be used in one home . In other words, the quality constraint information may be information indicating a bandwidth limitation of communication from the program distribution device 13 to the home server device 12 or information indicating a constraint when video is output from the server device 12. . That is, the quality constraint information may be any information indicating constraints on the quality of the program, and it does not matter at which stage the constraint is imposed. The quality is determined by any one of image resolution, SNR resolution, frame rate, or a combination thereof. The quality constraint information storage unit 1204 is preferably a nonvolatile recording medium, but can also be realized by a volatile recording medium.

  The quality determination unit 1205 is related to the viewing tendency information of the program related to the program that is the target of the viewing request received by the request receiving unit 1202, and one or more viewing request predicted programs determined by the viewing request predicted program determination unit 1203. The video quality of the program that is the target of the viewing request is determined according to the quality constraint information in the quality constraint information storage unit 1204 using the viewing tendency information of the program to be viewed. The “program related to one program” may be the same program as the one program, or may be another program in which a part of the program attributes of the one program match or are similar. If the program is a series program, it may be a series program broadcast and viewed in the past. The viewing tendency information includes, for example, program attributes such as genre information, program broadcast time zone information, and broadcast day of the week. In addition, viewing attitude information described in the second embodiment or later may be included. The viewing tendency information of the program related to the program that is the target of the viewing request received by the request receiving unit 1202 includes the genre information of the program that is the target of the viewing request and the program that is the target of the viewing request. It is genre information of similar programs (programs with the same performers, programs in which keywords extracted from the program outline match a certain number or more, programs where keywords extracted from the title match a certain number or more, etc.). The viewing tendency information of programs related to one or more viewing request predicted programs determined by the viewing request predicted program determination unit 1203 is, for example, genre information of one or more viewing request predicted programs corresponding to one or more viewing candidates. Or programs similar to one or more viewing request prediction programs corresponding to one or more viewing candidates (programs with the same performers, programs that match a certain number of keywords extracted from the program outline, titles, etc.) Genre information) such as a program in which a certain number of keywords are matched. For example, the genre information of the program that is the target of the viewing request received by the request receiving unit 1202 is “movie”, the genre information of the viewing request predicted program is “news”, and the quality constraint information is “ 10 ”(“ 10 ”indicates that, for example, the bandwidth of a plurality of programs distributed to one home is 10 (regardless of unit)), the quality determination unit 1205 includes genre information. The video quality of the “movie” program is determined as “7”, and the video quality of the viewing request prediction program of the genre information “news” is determined as “3”. The quality determination unit 1205 holds quality information, which is video quality information for each genre information, for such determination. Specifically, the quality determination unit 1205 determines the quality of the video or program according to genre information such as “movie: 7, drama: 6, variety: 5, quiz: 4, news: 3, education: 5. Information is held in a storage medium (not shown). Then, the quality determination unit 1205 reads the quality information “7” corresponding to the genre information “movie” of the requested program and the quality information “3” corresponding to the genre information “news” of the viewing request predicted program, The quality information of the program of the genre information “movie” is determined at least by using the bandwidth “10” which is the quality constraint information at a ratio of “7: 3”. The quality determination unit 1205 may determine the quality information of the program with the genre information “news” as “3”. Further, for example, when the viewing request predicted program includes two programs of the genre information “news” and the genre information “quiz”, the quality determination unit 1205 includes the genre information “news” of the viewing request predicted program. The quality information “3” corresponding to the quality information “4” and the quality information “4” corresponding to the genre information “quiz” are read out, and the bandwidth “10” as the quality constraint information is used at a ratio of “7: 3: 4”. , “10 × (7 / (7 + 3 + 4)))”, the quality information of the program of the genre information “movie” is determined as “5”. The quality determination unit 1205 may further weight the quality information in the program requested to be viewed and the quality information in the program predicted to be viewed to determine the quality in the final program requested to be viewed. good. “Weighting” is, for example, “7.” when the quality information of the requested program is “7” and the quality information of the predicted program is “3”. This is a process of reducing quality information by multiplying by “5”. Such a process is suitable in consideration of the uncertainty that it is not known whether or not the program predicted to be viewed is viewed. The quality determination unit 1205 can usually be realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the quality determination unit 1205 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The distribution request transmission unit 1206 transmits a program distribution request including program identification information for identifying a program and quality information that is information about video quality determined by the quality determination unit 1205 to the program distribution server device 13. The distribution request is, for example, a command having a structure of “send program ID, quality information”. However, the data structure of the distribution request does not matter. The quality information is information about video quality, but may be information on the quality of program data including audio. The video quality may be not only the quality of moving images but also the quality of still images and the quality of data to be transmitted. The distribution request transmission unit 1206 can be realized by a wireless or wired communication unit or the like.

  The program relay receiving unit 1207 receives the program identified by the program identification information included in the distribution request from the program distribution server device 13 in response to the transmission of the program distribution request. The program relay receiving unit 1207 can be realized by a wireless or wired communication unit or the like.

  The program relay transmission unit 1208 transmits the program received by the program relay reception unit 1207 to the program output device 11. The program relay transmission unit 1208 can be realized by wireless or wired communication means.

  The program storage unit 1301 stores one or more programs. The program may include contents such as movies distributed by VOD. The program may include a page (data) described in HTML, XML, music data, a still image, or the like. The program storage unit 1301 normally holds a pair of program identification information and a program (content). The program storage unit 1301 is preferably a non-volatile recording medium, but can also be realized by a volatile recording medium.

  The distribution request receiving unit 1302 receives from the server device 12 a distribution request for a program including program identification information for identifying a program and quality information that is information about video quality constituting the program. The distribution request receiving unit 1302 can be realized by a wireless or wired communication unit or the like.

  The program acquisition unit 1303 acquires the program identified by the program identification information included in the distribution request received by the distribution request receiving unit 1302 from the program storage unit 1301. When a plurality of programs corresponding to a plurality of video qualities are stored in the program storage unit 1301 for one program, the program acquisition unit 1303 uses the program identification information and the quality information included in the distribution request as a program. The storage unit 1301 is searched to read a program having quality that matches the quality information. The program acquisition unit 1303 can usually be realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the program acquisition unit 1303 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The program distribution unit 1304 distributes the program acquired by the program acquisition unit 1303 to the server device 12 with the quality of the video indicated by the quality information included in the distribution request. When the program acquisition unit 1303 searches the program storage unit 1301 using the program identification information and the quality information as keys and reads a program having a quality that matches the quality information, the program distribution unit 1304 acquires the program acquisition unit 1303 Deliver the program as it is. In addition, the program distribution unit 1304 changes the program acquired by the program acquisition unit 1303 to the quality of the video indicated by the quality information included in the distribution request (decreases the quality), and distributes the program having the quality to the server device 12. In such a case, the program storage unit 1301 normally stores a program having the highest quality for each program. Further, the process for changing to the video quality indicated by the quality information included in the distribution request may be a process for reducing the frame rate or a process for reducing the resolution. The image quality, the SNR resolution, the frame rate, or a combination thereof is suitable as the quality to be processed for changing the video quality. The program distribution unit 1304 can usually be realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the program distribution unit 1304 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  Next, the operation of the program output system will be described. First, the operation of the program output device 11 will be described using the flowchart of FIG.

  (Step S301) The receiving unit 1101 determines whether or not any instruction from the viewer has been received. If an instruction is accepted, the process goes to step S302, and if no instruction is accepted, the process returns to step S301. The instructions are a program viewing request instruction, a volume up / down instruction, a power on / off instruction, a recording start instruction, and other instructions.

  (Step S302) The request transmission unit 1103 determines whether or not the instruction received in step S301 is a program viewing request instruction. If it is a viewing request instruction, the process proceeds to step S303, and if it is not a viewing request instruction, the process proceeds to step S312. When the viewer presses the power button on the remote control, an instruction for viewing request to view the program in the channel stored in the last memory is input, or the program in the channel corresponding to the pressed button when the channel button on the remote control is pressed. Or a request for viewing to view the focused program is selected by selecting a focused program in the electronic program guide, or the program output device 11 By pressing a channel change button on the main unit or by a voice instruction using a voice interaction interface, a viewing request instruction for viewing a program is input.

  (Step S303) The request transmission unit 1103 acquires program identification information of a program for which an instruction to request viewing of the program is given. The request transmission unit 1103 reads program identification information of a program requested to be viewed from, for example, an electronic program guide management unit (not shown) stored in an electronic program guide management unit (implemented by a storage medium such as a hard disk). Place on memory. The EPG of the electronic program guide management means is, for example, information received by a means (not shown) by broadcasting, by communication, or read from a storage medium.

  (Step S304) The viewer identification information acquisition unit 1102 acquires the viewer identification information of the viewer who has input the viewing request. Specifically, for example, the photographing unit 11021 which is a camera facing the same direction as the screen of the program output device 11 photographs the viewer who is viewing the screen of the program output device 11. The viewer video recognition unit 11023 recognizes the viewer's video stored in the viewer information storage unit 11022, which is a video that matches the viewer's video shot by the shooting unit 11021. Next, the viewer identification information acquisition unit 11024 is a viewer identification paired with the viewer's video that the viewer video recognition unit 11023 recognizes as a video that matches the video of the viewer captured by the imaging unit 11021. Information is read from the viewer information storage means 11022 and placed on the memory. In addition, since the process which acquires viewer identification information is a well-known technique, detailed description is abbreviate | omitted. Further, the process for acquiring the viewer identification information may be another process.

  (Step S305) The request transmission unit 1103 composes a viewing request using the program identification information acquired in Step S303.

  (Step S306) The request transmission unit 1103 transmits the viewing request configured in step S305 and the viewer identification information acquired in step S304 to the server device 12.

  (Step S307) The program receiving unit 1104 determines whether or not a program corresponding to the viewing request has been received from the server device 12. If a program is received, the process goes to step S308, and if no program is received, the process goes to step S310.

  (Step S308) The program output unit 1105 outputs the program received in step S307.

  (Step S309) The accepting unit 1101 determines whether any request has been accepted. If the request is accepted, the process proceeds to step S302, and if the request is not accepted, the process proceeds to step S307.

  (Step S310) The program receiving unit 1104 determines whether or not a timeout has occurred. If it is time out, the process goes to step S311. If it is not time out, the process returns to step S307. The time-out refers to the following program (part) after a predetermined time or more has elapsed since the viewing request was transmitted to the server device 12, or after receiving the previous program (part). This is a case where a predetermined time or more has elapsed until the message is received.

  (Step S311) The program output unit 1105 outputs information indicating that an error has occurred with respect to program reception. The process returns to step S301.

  (Step S312) An operation unit (not shown) performs an operation corresponding to the received instruction. The process returns to step S301.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 3, the process ends when the power is turned off or the process is terminated.

  Next, the operation of the server device 12 will be described using the flowcharts of FIGS.

  (Step S401) The request reception unit 1202 determines whether a viewing request and viewer identification information are received from the program output device 11. If a viewing request or the like is received, the process goes to step S402. If a viewing request or the like is not received, the process returns to step S401.

  (Step S402) The viewing request predicted program determination unit 1203 acquires the program identification information included in the viewing request received in Step S401 and arranges it on the memory.

  (Step S403) The viewing request predicted program determination unit 1203 acquires the viewer identification information received in Step S401 and arranges it on the memory.

  (Step S404) The viewing request predicted program determination unit 1203 determines a viewing request predicted program using the program identification information acquired in step S402 and the viewer identification information acquired in step S403. The viewing request predicted program is a program predicted to have a viewing request. In the process of step S404, the viewing request predicted program determination unit 1203 normally acquires one or more pieces of program identification information, but may also acquire program attributes and the like. In the process of step S404, the viewing request prediction program may be determined to be “0”. The viewing request predicted program determination processing of the viewing request predicted program determination unit 1203 will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  (Step S405) The quality determination unit 1205 receives the viewing tendency information of the program related to the program that is the target of the viewing request received by the request reception unit 1202, and one or more viewing requests determined by the viewing request prediction program determination unit 1203. Using the viewing tendency information of the program related to the predicted program, the video quality of the program requested for viewing is determined according to the quality constraint information in the quality constraint information storage unit 1204. The quality determination process of the quality determination unit 1205 will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  (Step S406) The distribution request transmission unit 1206 constitutes a distribution request for a program including the program identification information acquired in Step S402 and quality information that is information about the video quality determined in Step S405.

  (Step S407) The distribution request transmission unit 1206 transmits the distribution request configured in step S406 to the program distribution server device 13.

  (Step S408) In response to the transmission of the distribution request in step S407, the program relay receiving unit 1207 determines whether or not the program identified by the program identification information included in the distribution request has been received from the program distribution server device 13. To do. If a program is received, the process goes to step S409, and if no program is received, the process goes to step S410.

  (Step S409) The program relay transmission unit 1208 transmits the program (part of the program) received in step S408 to the program output device 11. The process returns to step S408.

  (Step S410) The program relay receiving unit 1207 determines whether or not to end the receiving process. If the reception process is to be terminated, the process goes to step S401, and if not, the process returns to step S408.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 4, the process ends when the power is turned off or the process ends.

  Next, the viewing request predicted program determination process in step S404 will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  (Step S501) The requested program time zone information acquisition unit 12032 reads out the time zone information in the program attribute paired with the program identification information read out in step S402 from the program guide information storage unit 12031, and arranges it on the memory.

  (Step S502) The output candidate program information acquisition unit 12033 searches the program guide information storage unit 12031 using the time zone information acquired in Step S501, and is broadcast during the broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed. Output candidate program information that is information about the program is acquired. The output candidate program information may be, for example, one or more pieces of program identification information, or one or more pieces of program identification information and program attributes. Further, the one or more program identification information included in the output candidate program information does not include the program identification information of the program requested to be viewed. In addition, the program broadcast during the broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed may be a program that overlaps with the program requested to be viewed as much as possible or the broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed. It may be a program having a broadcast time that is completely included in the program, or a program that has a broadcast time that is equal to or greater than a certain percentage of the broadcast time of a program requested to be viewed.

  (Step S503) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 reads one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit 1202. It is assumed that the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 stores in advance two or more viewer identification information for identifying viewing candidates who may be requested to view. The two or more viewer identification information for identifying the viewing candidates that may be requested to be viewed may be information transmitted from means (not shown) of the program output device 11, or the user may send information to the server device 12. The input information may be stored in a storage medium. The input method of two or more viewer identification information is not ask | required.

  (Step S504) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 substitutes 1 for the counter i.

  (Step S505) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 determines whether or not the i-th viewer identification information among the one or more viewer identification information read in Step S503 exists. If the i-th viewer identification information exists, the process goes to step S506, and if the i-th viewer identification information does not exist, the process returns to a higher level process.

  (Step S506) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 acquires the i-th viewer identification information among the one or more viewer identification information read in Step S503.

  (Step S507) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 determines the viewer identified by the i-th viewer identification information in a predetermined period (for example, the latest 6 months, the latest 1 year, the latest 3 months, etc.). The viewing tendency information storage unit 1201 retrieves and acquires one or more program attributes included in the viewing tendency information for the program viewed by the user. Then, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 arranges the acquired one or more program attributes on the memory. Here, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 predetermines the program attributes of the viewing tendency information about the program viewed by the viewer identified by the i-th viewer identification information from new information. You may get as many as you like.

  (Step S508) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 acquires the representative value of the program attribute from the one or more program attributes arranged on the memory in Step S507. The representative value of the acquired program attribute is, for example, the most genre information among one or more program attributes. In addition, the representative value of the acquired program attribute is, for example, the program attribute of the program being viewed in the time zone indicated by the time zone information of the program requested to be viewed, and is the most genre information. Moreover, the representative value of the acquired program attribute is, for example, information on a performer having the highest appearance frequency among information on performers in one or more program attributes. Moreover, the representative value of the acquired program attribute is, for example, the most genre information in one or more program attributes and the most performer information. Moreover, the representative values of the acquired program attributes are, for example, the top five noun phrases in the noun phrases acquired from the program outline text. In addition, the representative values of the acquired program attributes are, for example, the top two noun phrases and the most genre information among the noun phrases acquired from the program outline and the character string of the title.

  (Step S509) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 substitutes 1 for a counter j.

  (Step S510) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 determines whether or not the jth program identification information exists among the one or more program identification information acquired in Step S502. If the jth program identification information exists, the process goes to step S511, and if the jth program identification information does not exist, the process goes to step S515.

  (Step S511) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 obtains, from the program guide information storage unit 12031, the program attribute that is paired with the jth program identification information among the one or more program identification information acquired in Step S502. read out.

  (Step S512) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 calculates the degree of approximation between the representative value of the program attribute acquired in Step S508 and the jth program attribute read in Step S511. The degree of approximation may be, for example, whether or not they match (“1” or “0”), or may be a number that matches among a plurality of program attributes, or may be weighted among a plurality of program attributes. The degree of approximation may be calculated. For example, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 may be an algorithm that gives 10 points when performers are included and 5 points when genre information matches. In addition, the algorithm for calculating the degree of approximation between the two is not limited.

  (Step S513) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 temporarily stores the degree of approximation calculated in Step S511 on the memory in combination with the jth program identification information.

  (Step S514) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 increments the counter j by 1, and returns to Step S510.

  (Step S515) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 acquires the program identification information having the highest degree of approximation using the one or more degrees of approximation temporarily stored in Step S513. This program identification information is the program identification information of the program that the i-th viewing candidate may view.

  (Step S516) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 temporarily stores the i-th viewer identification information of the i-th viewing candidate and the program identification information acquired in Step S515 as a pair.

  (Step S517) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 increments the counter i by 1, and returns to step S505.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 5, program identification information of programs that may be viewed is acquired for all viewing candidates. However, it is not necessary to acquire program identification information of programs that may be viewed from all viewing candidates. For example, if all the approximations calculated in step S513 are smaller than a predetermined threshold (not approximate), it is determined that there is no program that may be viewed for the viewing candidate, and the viewing is performed. Processing that does not acquire the program identification information corresponding to the candidate may be performed.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 5, the process for determining the viewing request prediction program may be a process described in the second embodiment or later.

  Next, the quality determination process in step S405 will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  (Step S601) The quality determination unit 1205 reads the program identification information included in the viewing request received by the request reception unit 1202, and temporarily stores it in the memory.

  (Step S602) The quality determination unit 1205 reads the program attribute corresponding to the program identification information read in step S601 from the program guide information storage unit 12031. Note that the quality determination unit 1205 may read only some of the program attributes from the program guide information storage unit 12031. Some program attributes are, for example, genre information.

  (Step S603) The quality determination unit 1205 reads the quality information (Q0) corresponding to the program attribute read in step S602. It is assumed that the quality determination unit 1205 holds, for example, a quality information management table having two or more records in which program attribute values and quality information are paired in storage means (not shown). A record in which program attribute values and quality information are paired is, for example, (genre information “news”, quality information “3”; genre information “drama”, quality information “5”), and the like. Then, the quality determination unit 1205 searches the quality information management table using the value of the program attribute (eg, “news”) as a key, and acquires quality information “3”.

  (Step S604) The quality determination part 1205 substitutes 1 to the counter i.

  (Step S605) The quality determination unit 1205 determines whether or not the program identification information of the i-th viewing candidate exists. If the i-th viewing candidate program identification information exists, the process goes to step S606, and if the i-th viewing candidate program identification information does not exist, the process goes to step S609.

  (Step S606) The quality determination unit 1205 reads the program attribute (or some attribute values in the program attribute) paired with the program identification information of the i-th viewing candidate from the program guide information storage unit 12031, and stores the memory. Place on top.

  (Step S607) The quality determination unit 1205 acquires quality information (Qi) corresponding to the value of the program attribute acquired in step S606. The quality information (Qi) acquisition method is the same as the quality information (Q0) acquisition method.

  (Step S608) The quality determination unit 1205 increments the counter i by 1. The process returns to step S605.

  (Step S609) The quality determination unit 1205 reads the quality constraint information from the quality constraint information storage unit 1204 and arranges it on the memory.

  (Step S610) The quality determination unit 1205 determines the video quality of the viewing request target program using the quality information of Q0, Q1,... So as to meet the constraints indicated by the quality constraint information acquired in step S609. To do. When the quality constraint information is “10”, “Q0 = 7”, “Q1 = 4”, “Q2 = 3”, the quality determination unit 1205 views “10 × (7 / (7 + 4 + 3)) = 5”. The quality information of the requested program is calculated and placed on the memory. Return to upper processing.

  Next, the operation of the program distribution server device 13 will be described using the flowchart of FIG.

  (Step S701) The distribution request receiving unit 1302 has received from the server apparatus 12 a distribution request for a program including program identification information for identifying a program and quality information that is information about video quality constituting the program. Judging. If a distribution request is received, the process goes to step S702, and if no distribution request is received, the process returns to step S701.

  (Step S702) The program acquisition unit 1303 acquires the program identification information and quality information included in the distribution request received in step S701, and arranges them on the memory.

  (Step S703) The program acquisition unit 1303 sets the program acquisition pointer to zero. The pointer is information indicating the position from the beginning of the program, and its data format is not limited.

  (Step S704) The program acquisition unit 1303 determines whether there is a part of the program identified by the program identification information acquired in step S702 and indicated by the pointer. If there is a part of the program, the process goes to step S705, and if there is no part of the program, the process returns to step S701.

  (Step S705) The program acquisition unit 1303 is a program identified by the program identification information, and reads a part of the program indicated by the pointer from the program storage unit 1301. A part of the program is, for example, video data for 30 frames and corresponding audio data.

  (Step S706) The program distribution unit 1304 changes the program acquired in step S705 to the video quality indicated by the quality information acquired in step S702, and obtains data of the program to be distributed. Then, the program distribution unit 1304 places the obtained program data on the memory.

  (Step S707) The program distribution unit 1304 distributes the program data obtained in step S706 to the server device 12.

  (Step S708) The program acquisition unit 1303 increments the pointer by a part of the acquired program. The process returns to step S704.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 7, for a single program, a plurality of programs having different video qualities are stored in the program storage unit 1301, and the program acquisition unit 1303 has a quality that matches the quality information included in the distribution request. You may read the program which has.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 7, the process ends when the power is turned off or the process is terminated.

  Hereinafter, a specific operation of the program output system in the present embodiment will be described. A conceptual diagram of the program output system is shown in FIG.

  FIG. 8 is a viewer information management table stored in the viewer information storage means 11022 in the program output device 11. The viewer information management table stores two or more pieces of viewer information including viewer identification information and viewer images. Here, the viewer information management table holds four pieces of viewer information. The viewer information management table may be input manually by a user or may be read from a storage medium.

  FIG. 9 is a program guide information management table stored in the program guide information storage means 12031 of the server device 12. The program guide information management table is a so-called electronic program guide. The program guide information management table manages one or more records having attributes of “ID”, “date”, “day of the week”, “station identifier”, “broadcast time zone”, “title”, “genre”, “performer”, and “program overview”. Yes. “ID” is information for identifying a record and exists for record management in the table. “Date” is an attribute indicating the date of broadcasting or scheduled broadcasting. “Day of the week” is an attribute indicating the day of the week on which the broadcast or the broadcast is scheduled. The “station identifier” is an attribute that identifies a broadcasting station that broadcasts a program, and includes a channel number of the broadcasting station, a broadcasting station name, and the like. The “broadcast time zone” is an attribute relating to the time zone during which the program is broadcast, and it is only necessary to know the start time and end time of the program. “Title” is an attribute indicating the title of the program. “Genre” is an attribute in which genre information indicating the genre of a program is stored. “Performer” is an attribute in which one or more performers of a program are stored. “Program outline” is an attribute in which a sentence indicating the outline of a program is stored.

  FIG. 10 is a viewing tendency information management table of the viewing tendency information storage unit 1201 of the server device 12. The viewing tendency information management table is a table having one or more viewing tendency information, which is information about programs viewed by viewing candidates in the past. The viewing tendency information management table has “ID”, “viewer identification information”, and “program attribute”. The “program attribute” has attributes of “broadcast day”, “broadcast time zone”, “program genre”, and “program keyword”. “Viewer identification information” is an attribute for identifying a viewer. “Broadcast day” is the day of the week on which the viewed program was broadcast. The “broadcast time zone” is an attribute indicating the time zone in which the viewed program was broadcast. “Program genre” is an attribute in which genre information can be stored. The “program keyword” is an attribute in which one or more keywords indicating a program can be stored. For example, the “program keyword” can be acquired from information on “title”, “performer”, and “program overview” in the program guide information. As a method for acquiring a keyword from a program summary, for example, a method of obtaining a noun by performing morphological analysis on a program summary sentence is conceivable. The method for acquiring the viewing tendency information management table is not limited. For example, the viewing tendency information management table is automatically acquired by the viewing tendency information acquisition device described in the second embodiment and later.

  FIG. 11 is a program storage table stored in the program storage unit 1301 of the program distribution server device 13. The program storage table has attributes of “program identification information”, “title”, and “program”. “Title” is the title of the program. The “program” is the program content itself.

  Further, it is assumed that it is 19:00 on October 24, 2006. In this situation, it is assumed that the viewer identified by the viewer identifier “01” displays the electronic program guide on the program output device 11 and inputs a viewing request for “professional baseball XXXXXX” with the remote controller.

  Then, the reception unit 1101 of the program output device 11 receives a viewing request. Then, the request transmission unit 1103 acquires the program identification information “104” of the focused program in the electronic program guide displayed on the screen. Here, the program identification information is the value of “ID” in the electronic program guide (see FIG. 9).

  Next, the photographing means 11021, which is a camera facing the same direction as the screen of the program output device 11, photographs the viewer's face identified by the viewer identifier “01”, and the viewer identification information acquisition unit 1102. Obtains an image of the face of the viewer who has input the viewing request. Then, the viewer video recognition unit 11023 extracts features from the viewer's face image and constructs a feature vector. In addition, the viewer video recognition unit 11023 sequentially reads the viewer's video in the viewer information management table of FIG. 8 and acquires the feature vector. Then, the feature vector extracted from the image of the viewer's face identified by the viewer identifier “01” is compared with the feature vector extracted from each video of the viewer in the viewer information management table, and the closest (the closest) The viewer identification information “01” paired with the feature vector having a high similarity is acquired from the viewer information management table of FIG. Note that a technique for comparing two images and calculating a similarity is a known technique, and thus detailed description thereof is omitted.

  Then, the request transmission unit 1103 configures a viewing request “send 104” using the program identification information “104”. Then, the request transmission unit 1103 transmits the viewing request “send 104” and the viewer identification information “01” to the server device 12.

  Next, the request receiving unit 1202 receives the viewing request “send 104” and the viewer identification information “01” from the program output device 11.

  Then, the viewing request predicted program determining unit 1203 determines the viewing request predicted program using the acquired program identification information “104” and the acquired viewer identification information “01”. That is, the requested program time zone information acquisition unit 12032 sets the time zone information in the program attribute paired with the read program identification information “104” from the program table information management table (see FIG. 9) of the program table information storage unit 12031. “19: 00-21: 00: 00” is read and placed on the memory. Next, the output candidate program information acquisition unit 12033 searches the program guide information storage unit 12031 using the acquired time zone information “19: 00-210: 00”, and broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed. One or more pieces of output candidate program information, which is information about a program broadcast inside, is acquired and placed on the memory. FIG. 12 shows one or more output candidate program information (output candidate program management table) arranged on the memory. The output candidate program management table manages one or more records having attributes of “ID”, “day of the week”, “station identifier”, “broadcast time zone”, “title”, “genre”, “performer”, and “program overview”. . However, the structure of the output candidate program management table is not limited to the structure of FIG.

  Next, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 reads one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information “01” received by the request receiving unit 1202. In this specific example, as shown in FIG. 8, the viewer identification information of all viewer candidates is stored in the program output device 11, but the server device 12 is the viewer candidate of all viewer candidates. Identification information may be stored. Here, description will be made assuming that the server device 12 also stores the viewer identification information of all the candidate viewers. That is, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 reads three pieces of viewer identification information (“02”, “03”, “04”) excluding the viewer identification information “01” received by the request receiving unit 1202.

  Next, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 performs processing from the first viewer identification information “02” in the read three viewer identification information. That is, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 views a program viewed by the viewer identified by the first viewer identification information “02” in a predetermined period (here, the latest three months). One or more program attributes included in the trend information are retrieved from the viewing trend information management table (see FIG. 10) of the viewing trend information storage unit 1201 and acquired. Then, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 obtains the specific viewer viewing tendency information management table shown in FIG. Here, the structure of the specific viewer viewing tendency information management table is the same as the structure of the viewing tendency information management table of FIG. However, the specific viewer viewing tendency information management table shown in FIG. 13 does not necessarily have all the attributes of the viewing tendency information management table of FIG. The specific viewer viewing tendency information management table shown in FIG. 13 may be, for example, only the attribute value of “program genre” which is genre information, or may be only genre information and broadcast time zone information. Next, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 acquires a representative value of the program attribute from one or more program attributes (specific viewer viewing tendency information management table shown in FIG. 13) arranged on the memory. Here, the representative value of the program attribute is, for example, the program genre that the record having the attribute “broadcast time zone” includes the time zone “19: 00-210: 00” indicated by the time zone information of the requested program. It is assumed that it is the most genre information among them. Then, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 determines that the program genre of the program that the viewer identified by the first viewer identification information “02” may view is “quiz”, and the genre information The “quiz” is stored on the memory in a pair with the viewer identification information “02”. Note that this is the possibility that the viewing candidate identified by the viewer identification information “02” will watch the program of the genre of the genre information “quiz” during the time zone “19: 00-210: 00”. Is predicted to be high.

  Next, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 searches the records in the genre information “quiz” among the records in the output candidate program management table of FIG. Here, in detail, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 reads each record in the output candidate program management table, and determines whether or not the attribute value of “genre” and “quiz” of each record match. If they match, the degree of approximation is set to “1”, and if they do not match, the degree of approximation is set to “0”. Then, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 acquires a record having a degree of approximation of “1”. That is, here, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 acquires a record of “ID = 92”. Then, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 stores the program identification information “92” (the value of the ID) on the memory together with the viewer identification information “02”.

  Next, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 performs the process of the second viewer identification information “03” in the three pieces of read viewer identification information in the same manner as the process of the viewer identification information “02”. Do. Then, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 allows the viewer identified by the viewer identification information “03” to be in the genre of the genre information “quiz” during the time zone “19: 00-210: 00”. It is assumed that the possibility of watching the program is high. Next, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 acquires the record of “ID = 92” and stores the program identification information “92” (the value of the ID) in the same manner as the processing of the viewer identification information “02”. And stored in the memory in a pair with the viewer identification information “03”.

  Next, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 performs processing of the second viewer identification information “04” in the read three viewer identification information, and processing of the viewer identification information “02” “03”. Do the same. Then, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 allows the viewer identified by the viewer identification information “04” to be in the genre of the genre information “animation” during the time zone “19: 00-210: 00”. It is assumed that the possibility of watching the program is high.

  Next, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 searches the records in the output candidate program management table of FIG. 12 for records whose genre information is “animation”. Here, in detail, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 reads each record of the output candidate program management table, and determines whether or not the attribute value of “genre” of each record matches “animation”. If they match, the degree of approximation is set to “1”, and if they do not match, the degree of approximation is set to “0”. Then, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 acquires a record having a degree of approximation of “1”. However, here, it is assumed that there is no record having “animation” in the attribute value of “genre” of each record in the output candidate program management table. Then, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 stores “NULL” as the value of the program identification information in a pair with the viewer identification information “04” on the memory. Through the above processing, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 obtains the viewing request predicted program management table shown in FIG. Here, the viewing request predicted program management table has attributes of “viewer identification information”, “genre information”, and “program identification information”. However, an important attribute in the viewing request predicted program management table is “program identification information”. That is, in FIG. 14, the program with the program identification information “92” is a program that may be requested to be viewed during the broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed (the program with the program identification information “104”). Will be selected. Note that the viewing candidates of the viewer identification information “02” and “03” are highly likely to view the same program, and it is assumed here that the distribution and reception of one program is sufficient.

  Here, it is assumed that the quality determination unit 1205 holds the quality information management table shown in FIG. The quality information management table manages information indicating the quality of programs by genre information. The quality information management table has attributes of “ID”, “genre information”, and “quality information”. Here, the attribute value of the attribute “quality information” can take a value from 1 to 10, and the larger the value, the higher the video quality program is provided. Further, the quality constraint information in the quality constraint information storage unit 1204 is the maximum bandwidth allowed for one family, and is “10” here.

  In this situation, next, the quality determination unit 1205 receives a program (here, “ID = 104”) related to the program (“ID = 104”) that is the target of the viewing request received by the request reception unit 1202. ) And the one or more viewing request predicted programs (“ID” determined by the viewing request predicted program determination unit 1203). = 92 ”program) (in this case, it is assumed that the program itself is“ ID = 92 ”) viewing tendency information (here, genre information“ quiz ”in the program attributes) is used. In accordance with the quality constraint information stored in the quality constraint information storage unit 1204, the video quality of the program requested to be viewed is determined. That is, the quality determination unit 1205 acquires the quality information “7” corresponding to the genre information “sports” from the quality information management table of FIG. 15 and stores it in the memory. Then, the quality determination unit 1205 acquires the quality information “3” corresponding to the genre information “quiz” from the quality information management table of FIG. 15 and stores it in the memory. Then, the quality determination unit 1205 uses “quality constraint information × (quality information of the requested program) / (total quality information of the requested program and quality information of one or more viewing request predicted programs)”. The quality information is determined when a distribution request is made for a program requested to be viewed. That is, here, the quality determination unit 1205 calculates “7” as the quality information when the distribution is requested by “10 × (7 / (7 + 3))”, and places the quality information “7” on the memory. .

  Next, the distribution request transmission unit 1206 constitutes a distribution request for a program including program identification information “104” and quality information “7” that is information about the determined video quality. The distribution request is, for example, “send 104, 7”. Then, the distribution request transmission unit 1206 transmits the configured distribution request “send 104, 7” to the program distribution server device 13.

  Next, the distribution request receiving unit 1302 sends a program distribution request “send 104, 7” including program identification information for identifying a program and quality information that is information about video quality constituting the program from the server device 12. Receive. Then, the program acquisition unit 1303 acquires the program identification information “104” and the quality information “7” included in the received distribution request, and arranges them on the memory.

  Next, the program acquisition unit 1303 sequentially reads out the programs identified by the acquired program identification information “104” from the program storage unit 1301. Then, the program distribution unit 1304 sequentially changes the read programs to the video quality indicated by the acquired quality information “7”, and obtains data of the programs to be distributed. Then, the program distribution unit 1304 distributes programs whose video quality has been changed to the server device 12 one after another.

  Next, in response to the transmission of the distribution request “send 104, 7”, the program relay receiving unit 1207 of the server device 12 successively selects programs identified by the program identification information “104” included in the distribution request. Received from the distribution server device 13. Then, the program relay transmission unit 1208 sequentially transmits the received program (part of the program) to the program output device 11.

  Next, the program receiving unit 1104 of the program output device 11 receives a program corresponding to the viewing request from the server device 12. Then, the program output unit 1105 outputs the received program.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to output a video (content) having a quality corresponding to the viewing tendency of programs of a plurality of people. For example, when making adjustments at home, the viewing tendency of programs of a plurality of family members who have the possibility of viewing is acquired, and communication restrictions such as bandwidth allocated to one family are taken into consideration and It is possible to provide a program output system that determines and requests video quality. In other words, according to the present embodiment, a program output system is provided that mediates and controls the resource allocation of a limited information communication infrastructure so as to improve the satisfaction regarding the quality of the total multimedia of a plurality of people. it can.

  According to the present embodiment, the quality control target is mainly the quality of the video of the program, but it goes without saying that the control includes the control of the quality of audio and data. This also applies to other embodiments.

  Further, according to the present embodiment, the viewer who made the program viewing request uses the camera and the image recognition processing, but for example, using a biometric authentication function such as a fingerprint attached to the remote control, Other means described above may be used. That is, there is no limitation on the method for identifying the viewer who made the program viewing request. This also applies to other embodiments.

  In addition, according to the present embodiment, the viewer identification information acquisition unit exists in the program output device, but may exist in the server device or in another device dedicated for viewer identification. May be. This also applies to other embodiments.

  Further, according to the present embodiment, the program output device receives and outputs a program from the program distribution server device via the server device. However, the program output device may receive and output a program from the program distribution server device without going through the server device. In such a case, the server device notifies the program distribution server device of the communication address (IP address, telephone number, etc.) of the program output device.

  Furthermore, the processing in the present embodiment may be realized by software. Then, this software may be distributed by software download or the like. Further, this software may be recorded on a recording medium such as a CD-ROM and distributed. This also applies to other embodiments in this specification. Note that the software that implements the server device in the present embodiment is the following program. In other words, the program causes the computer to receive a viewing request and a viewer identification information, and one or more viewer identification information corresponding to one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit. The viewing tendency information is read from the storage medium, and one or more viewing candidates who are viewers other than the viewer who has input the viewing request using the one or more viewing tendency information are targeted for the viewing request. Related to a viewing request predicted program determining unit that determines one or more viewing request predicted programs that are programs that may be requested during the broadcast time of the program, and a program that is the target of the viewing request received by the receiving unit Using the viewing tendency information of the program to be played and the viewing tendency information of the program related to the one or more viewing request prediction programs determined by the viewing request prediction program determination unit, according to the stored quality constraint information. A quality determining unit that determines the video quality of the program that is the target of the viewing request received by the receiving unit, program identification information that identifies the program, and quality information that is information about the video quality determined by the quality determining unit A distribution request transmitting unit that transmits a distribution request for the program to the program distribution server device; a program relay receiving unit that receives the program from the program distribution server device in response to the transmission of the distribution request for the program; A program for causing a program received by the program relay receiving unit to function as a program relay transmitting unit that transmits the program to the program output device.

  Further, in the above program, the computer, the viewer identification information acquisition unit captures the viewer, acquires a video of the viewer, and viewer information including the viewer identification information and the viewer's video. Viewer information storage means that stores two or more of the images, and viewing that recognizes the viewer's video stored in the viewer information storage means, the video matching the video of the viewer captured by the imaging means Viewer that acquires viewer identification information that is paired with the viewer's video that the viewer's video recognition means recognizes as the video that matches the viewer's video captured by the imaging means A program that functions as a device including identification information acquisition means.

Further, in the above program, the viewing request prediction program determination unit includes a program identification information of a broadcast program, time zone information indicating a broadcast time zone of the program identified by the program identification information, and the program Program guide information storing means for storing program guide information comprising one or more program information having program attributes having genre information indicating the genre of the program identified by the identification information; program identification information included in the viewing request; The requested program time zone information obtaining means for obtaining paired time zone information and the program guide information storage means are searched using the time zone information and broadcast during the broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed. Output candidate program information acquisition means for acquiring output candidate program information, which is information about a program to be received, and at least one viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit Viewing, except for the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit, from the output candidate program information acquired by the output candidate program information acquisition means using one or more program attributes of one or more viewing tendency information corresponding to A program that functions as comprising a viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit that acquires viewing request predicted program information that is information about a program that may be viewed by one or more viewing candidates identified by the person identification information; It is.
(Embodiment 2)

  In the present embodiment, a video (content) having a quality corresponding to the viewing tendency of programs of a plurality of people is output. Here, the viewing tendency information includes viewing posture information which is information indicating the viewing posture of the viewer with respect to the output program. The viewing attitude information is, for example, attention degree information that is information indicating a degree of attention to a program that the viewer is outputting, or information that specifies a viewing style when the viewer views the program. This is viewing style information. The viewing style information is, for example, information for identifying zapping or watching while watching or constant viewing. In this embodiment, the video quality of the program requested to be viewed is determined using the viewing attitude information. Note that “constant viewing” refers to a viewing style that is generally concentrated and viewed constantly.

  FIG. 16 is a block diagram of the program output system in the present embodiment. The program output system includes a program output device 11, a viewing tendency information acquisition device 161, a server device 162, and a program distribution server device 13.

  The viewing tendency information acquisition device 161 includes a viewing attitude information acquisition unit 16101, a viewing tendency information configuration unit 16102, and a viewing tendency information transmission unit 16103.

  The viewing posture information acquisition unit 16101 includes a viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161011, a distance information acquisition unit 161012, a command acquisition unit 161013, and a viewing style information acquisition unit 161014.

  The server device 162 includes a viewing tendency information storage unit 1201, a request receiving unit 1202, a viewing request predicted program determining unit 1203, a quality constraint information storing unit 1204, a quality determining unit 16205, a distribution request transmitting unit 1206, a program relay receiving unit 1207, a program A relay transmission unit 1208, a viewing tendency information reception unit 16209, and a viewing tendency information storage unit 16210 are provided.

  The quality determination unit 16205 includes a viewing method information acquisition unit 162051, a viewing posture information selection unit 162052, a predicted viewing posture information acquisition unit 162053, a viewing request program attribute acquisition unit 162054, a viewing requester program attribute acquisition unit 162055, and a viewing requester viewing posture. Information acquisition means 162056 and quality determination means 162057 are provided.

  The viewing attitude information acquisition unit 16101 acquires viewing attitude information, which is information indicating the viewing attitude that can be acquired from the behavior of the viewer with respect to the program output by the program output unit 1105 of the program output device 11. The viewing attitude information is, for example, attention level information that is information indicating a degree of attention to a program that the viewer is outputting, or information that specifies a viewing style when the viewer views the program. Style information. The viewing style information is, for example, information for identifying zapping or watching while watching or constant viewing. Also, the viewing style information may be only information that can distinguish concentrated viewing from non-concentrated viewing. A method of acquiring viewing attitude information in the viewing attitude information acquisition unit 16101 will be described later. The viewing posture information acquisition unit 16101 can be usually realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the viewing attitude information acquisition unit 16101 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161101 acquires viewing frequency information, which is information about the frequency of the viewer's video taken by the camera, which is suitable for the display that is outputting the program that the viewer is viewing. More specifically, the viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161011 periodically analyzes the image of the viewer photographed by the camera, recognizes the face, and determines the orientation of the face. The direction of the face may be, for example, only whether or not it is facing the screen. For the face direction, for example, the viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161101 acquires the distance between both eyes from the face recognition result, and determines that the face (camera) is not directly facing if it is within a certain distance, If it is above a certain level, it is determined that the camera is facing the screen (camera). In addition, for example, for the face orientation, the viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161101 recognizes the face, and displays the screen (camera) according to the ratio of the skin color to the other color, or the ratio of the black or brown hair to the other color. On the other hand, it may be determined whether or not they face each other. The viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161011, for example, may perform a process of acquiring the time of facing the screen in the program output time and calculating the ratio of facing the screen. The viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161011 may use the ratio as the viewing frequency information, and from the ratio, set the frequency that is suitable for the display that is outputting the program that the viewer is viewing (value is, for example, “ 3 ”), medium (for example,“ 2 ”), and low (for example,“ 1 ”). In addition, the viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161101 may calculate whether or not the viewer is facing the screen and its frequency using an eye tracking method that captures the movement of the line of sight. And the viewing frequency information acquisition means 161101 may acquire viewing frequency information from the frequency. Since the eye tracking method is a known technique, a detailed description thereof will be omitted. The viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161011 can usually be realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161011 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The distance information acquisition unit 161012 acquires distance information that is the distance between the viewer and the display that is outputting the program. The distance information acquisition unit 161012, for example, transmits an ultrasonic wave from an ultrasonic transmitter installed in the program output device 11, measures the time for the ultrasonic wave to return to the viewer (obstacle) in front, The distance between the output device 11 (screen) and the viewer may be measured. In addition, the method of measuring the distance between the screen of the program output device 11 and the viewer is not limited. The distance information acquisition unit 161012 can be realized by, for example, an ultrasonic transmitter, a receiver, an MPU, a memory, and the like. The processing procedure of the distance information acquisition unit 161012 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded in a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The command acquisition unit 161013 acquires one or more commands for switching channels. The command to switch channels includes a channel up / down signal of the remote controller, a signal corresponding to the channel number, a signal for selecting one program from the displayed electronic program guide, and the like. The command acquisition unit 161013 can be realized by, for example, an infrared light receiving unit and its driver software.

  The viewing style information acquisition unit 161014 uses at least one command acquired by the command acquisition unit 161013 to determine at least whether it is concentrated viewing or non-concentrated viewing, and acquires viewing style information that is information about whether it is concentrated viewing or not. To do. When the viewing style information acquisition unit 161014 determines that the instruction acquisition unit 161013 has received a command to change the channel for a predetermined number of times (for example, 10 times) or more during a predetermined time (for example, 30 minutes), for example, It is determined to be viewing, and if it is less than a predetermined number of times, it is determined to be concentrated viewing.

  Further, the viewing style information acquisition unit 161014 has any one of zapping (for example, the value “1”), watching (for example, the value “2”), and constant viewing (for example, the value “3”). Viewing style information may be acquired. That is, for example, the viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161101 determines that the viewing frequency is “low”, and the command acquisition unit 161013 determines a predetermined number of times (for example, 5 minutes) during a predetermined time (for example, 10 minutes). If it is determined that a channel change command less than (number of times) has been received, the viewing style information acquisition unit 161014 acquires the viewing style information as a look (for example, a value “2”). Also, the viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161101 determines that the viewing frequency is “medium” or “high”, and the instruction acquisition unit 161013 determines that the predetermined number of times (for example, 10 minutes) (for example, 10 minutes) When it is determined that the above channel change command has been received, the viewing style information acquisition unit 161014 acquires the viewing style information as zapping (for example, the value “1”). Also, the viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161101 determines that the viewing frequency is “medium” or “high”, and the instruction acquisition unit 161013 determines that the predetermined number of times (for example, 10 minutes) (for example, 10 minutes) If it is determined that a channel change command less than (5 times) has been received, the viewing style information acquisition unit 161014 acquires the viewing style information as constant viewing (for example, the value “3”). In addition, the viewing style information acquisition unit 161014 may acquire viewing style information of four or more categories. Note that it is assumed that the viewing style information acquisition unit 161014 holds in advance information on which value of the viewing style information is determined under any condition. The viewing style information acquisition unit 161014 can be usually realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the viewing style information acquisition unit 161014 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  Also, the viewing attitude information acquisition unit 16101 configures the attention level information using one or more pieces of information of the viewing frequency information acquired by the viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161101 or the distance information acquired by the distance information acquisition unit 161012. It is preferable to do. Although not shown, the means constituting the attention level information is also referred to as attention level information acquisition means. The viewing posture information acquisition unit 16101 normally configures the attention level information so that the higher the viewing frequency indicated by the viewing frequency information, the closer the distance indicated by the distance information, the greater the degree of attention indicated by the attention level information. To do. Note that the viewing posture information acquisition unit 16101 may configure the attention level information based only on the viewing frequency information, or may configure the attention level information based only on the distance information.

  Note that the viewing tendency information acquisition device 161 may be included in the program output device 11 or may be included in the server device 162.

  The viewing tendency information configuration unit 16102 includes the viewer identification information acquired by the viewer identification information acquisition unit 1102, the program attributes of the program output by the program output unit 1105, and the viewing posture information acquired by the viewing posture information acquisition unit 16101. Use to configure viewing tendency information. Note that the viewing tendency information configuration unit 16102 outputs the viewer identification information acquired by the viewer identification information acquisition unit 1102 from the program output device 11 and the program output unit 1105 by means (not shown) such as a communication unit or an internal bus. It is assumed that the program attribute of the selected program is received. The viewing tendency information includes, for example, “ID”, “viewer identification information”, “program attribute”, and “viewing attitude information”. The “program attribute” is, for example, “broadcast day”, “broadcast time zone”, “program genre”, or “program keyword”. In such a case, the viewing tendency information configuration unit 16102 stores, for example, program guide information, extracts nouns from the attribute values of the program title, performers, and program outline of the program guide information, and sets the attribute of “program keyword”. Configure the value. “Viewing attitude information” is, for example, “attention level information” and “viewing style information”. The viewing tendency information configuration unit 16102 can be usually realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the viewing tendency information configuration unit 16102 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The viewing tendency information sending unit 16103 sends the viewing tendency information configured by the viewing tendency information configuration unit 16102 to the server device 162. Here, sending may be a transmission using a communication means, a writing via an internal bus, or the like. The viewing tendency information sending unit 16103 can be usually realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the viewing tendency information sending unit 16103 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The quality determination unit 16205 is related to the viewing tendency information of the program related to the program that is the target of the viewing request received by the receiving unit 1101 and one or more viewing request predicted programs determined by the viewing request predicted program determination unit 1203. Using the viewing tendency information of the program, the video quality of the program that is the target of the viewing request received by the receiving unit 1101 is determined according to the quality constraint information. The quality determination unit 16205 can be usually realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the quality determination unit 16205 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The viewing method information acquisition means 162051 acquires, for each viewing candidate, one or more program attributes and viewing attitude information possessed by each of one or more viewing tendency information corresponding to another program that the viewing candidate has viewed in the past. To do. The viewing candidate is a viewer who is predicted to view a program corresponding to the viewing request predicted program information acquired by the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034, and is identified by the viewer identification information. The viewing method information acquisition unit 162051 can usually be realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the viewing method information acquisition unit 162051 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded in a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The viewing attitude information selection unit 162052 selects a program attribute that matches the program attribute included in the viewing request predicted program information from one or more program attributes acquired by the viewing method information acquisition unit 162051, and selects the selected program attribute and Select one or more viewing posture information to be paired. “Program attributes match” means that, when two or more program attributes exist, even if some attribute values are different, some attribute values match and it is determined that they are similar as a whole Including. Also, “program keywords” as an example of program attributes may match using a thesaurus dictionary, and it may be determined that similar keywords also match, and the semantic distance between two keywords may be determined as a thesaurus dictionary. It may be determined whether the “program keyword” matches from the sum of the distances. In addition, two “program keywords” are determined not only by the complete matching of each keyword group of the two “program keywords” but also by considering some keyword matches and similarities. May be. There are various algorithms for determining whether the two keyword groups match or are similar to each other, and since they are well-known techniques, a detailed description thereof will be omitted. The viewing attitude information selection unit 162052 can be usually realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the viewing attitude information selection unit 162052 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded in a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The predicted viewing attitude information acquisition unit 162053 uses the one or more viewing attitude information selected by the viewing attitude information selection unit 162052 to acquire predicted viewing attitude information that is the viewing attitude information of the program corresponding to the viewing request predicted program information. To do. For example, when the viewing posture information is attention level information represented by a numerical value, the predicted viewing posture information acquisition unit 162053 calculates a representative value such as an average value or median value of one or more pieces of viewing posture information. Further, for example, when the viewing posture information is viewing style information (for example, three categories of zapping, watching while watching, and constant viewing), the most viewing posture information among the one or more viewing posture information is acquired. In addition, the predicted viewing posture information acquisition unit 162053 may perform a process of acquiring a representative value from one or more viewing posture information. The predicted viewing attitude information acquired by the predicted viewing attitude information acquisition unit 162053 is information indicating a predicted viewing attitude when a viewing candidate predicted to view a program that is predicted to be viewed. The predicted viewing attitude information acquisition unit 162053 can be realized usually by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the predicted viewing attitude information acquisition unit 162053 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded in a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The viewing request program attribute acquisition unit 162054 acquires the program attribute of the program identified by the program identification information included in the viewing request received by the request receiving unit 1202 from the program guide information storage unit 12031. The viewing request program attribute acquisition unit 162054 may acquire all the program attributes stored in the program guide information storage unit 12031, or may acquire some program attributes. The viewing request program attribute acquisition unit 162054 can be usually realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the viewing request program attribute acquisition unit 162054 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded in a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The viewing requester program attribute acquisition unit 162055 is a program attribute that matches the program attribute acquired by the viewing request program attribute acquisition unit 162054. The viewer identification information acquired by the viewer identification information acquisition unit 1102 (the request reception unit 1202 One or more program attributes of one or more viewing tendency information, which is information about a program viewed by the viewer identified by the received viewer identification information), are acquired from the viewing tendency information storage unit 1201. Here, the two program attributes match, as described above, it is determined that one or more attribute values do not need to match completely, and even if there are some matches, the two program attributes match. There may be cases. First, the viewing requester program attribute acquisition unit 162055 searches the viewing tendency information storage unit 1201 using the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit 1202 as a key, and the viewer identified by the viewer identification information views One or more program attributes included in one or more viewing tendency information, which is information about the program, are acquired and arranged on the memory. Then, the viewing requester program attribute acquisition unit 162055 sequentially determines whether each program attribute of one or more programs arranged on the memory matches the program attribute acquired by the viewing request program attribute acquisition unit 162054. Among the program attributes of one or more programs arranged on the memory, a program attribute that matches the program attribute obtained by the viewing request program attribute obtaining unit 162054 is obtained and arranged on the memory. The viewing requester program attribute acquisition unit 162055 can be realized typically as an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the viewing requester program attribute acquisition means 162055 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded in a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The viewing requester viewing attitude information acquisition unit 162056 acquires viewing attitude information of a program corresponding to one or more program attributes acquired by the viewing requester program attribute acquisition unit 162055. The viewing requester viewing posture information acquisition unit 162056 reads, from the viewing tendency information storage unit 1201, for example, one or more viewing posture information that is paired with one or more program attributes acquired by the viewing requester program attribute acquisition unit 162055. . Then, representative viewing posture information is acquired from the one or more viewing posture information. The representative viewing posture information is, for example, an average value or median value of one or more attention level information included in one or more viewing posture information. The representative viewing posture information is, for example, viewing style information having the largest value among one or more viewing style information included in one or more viewing posture information. The viewing attitude information acquired by the viewing requester viewing attitude information acquisition unit 162056 is viewing attitude information predicted when the viewer who has input the viewing request views the requested program. The viewing requester viewing posture information acquisition unit 62056 can be usually realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the viewing requester viewing posture information acquisition unit 62056 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded in a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The quality determination unit 162057 uses the viewing posture information acquired by the viewing requester viewing posture information acquisition unit 162056 and the predicted viewing posture information acquired by the predicted viewing posture information acquisition unit 162053 according to the quality constraint information. The video quality of the program subject to the received viewing request is determined. The viewing posture information acquired by the viewing requester viewing posture information acquisition unit 162056 is information indicating the predicted viewing posture of the viewer who has requested viewing of the program. The predicted viewing posture information acquired by the predicted viewing posture information acquisition unit 162053 is information indicating the predicted viewing posture of the viewing candidate who is predicted to make a viewing request. That is, the quality determination unit 162057 determines the video quality of the program that is the target of the viewing request, using the viewing posture information of the viewer who has requested viewing and the viewing posture information of the viewing candidate. For example, the viewing attitude information of the viewer is the viewing style “constant viewing” and the attention level “high”, and the viewing attitude information of the viewing candidate is the viewing style information “while watching” and the attention level information “low”. In this case, for example, a large area of the bandwidth is allocated to the viewer, and a small area is allocated to the viewing candidate as determined by the quality constraint information. The quality determination means 162057 can usually be realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the quality determination means 162057 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The viewing tendency information reception unit 16209 receives the viewing tendency information from the viewing tendency information acquisition device 161. Here, reception means reception using a communication means or reception via an internal bus. The viewing tendency information reception unit 16209 can be realized by, for example, a wireless or wired communication unit.

  The viewing tendency information accumulating unit 16210 accumulates the viewing tendency information received by the viewing tendency information receiving unit 16209 in the viewing tendency information storage unit 1201. The viewing tendency information storage unit 16210 can be normally realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the viewing tendency information storage unit 16210 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  Next, the operation of the program output system will be described. First, the operation of the viewing tendency information acquisition apparatus 161 will be described using the flowcharts of FIGS. 17 and 18.

  (Step S1701) The viewing tendency information configuration unit 16102 determines whether viewing of the program has started. If the viewing of the program is started, the process goes to step S1702, and if the viewing of the program is not started, the process returns to step S1701. Note that the start of program viewing is determined by, for example, receiving a channel change command or receiving a power-on command for the program output device 11. Further, a signal for starting viewing of such a program may be received from the program output device 11 or may be determined from a command received by the command acquisition means 161013 held by the viewing tendency information acquisition device 161.

  (Step S1702) The viewing tendency information configuration unit 16102 acquires the program attribute of the program whose viewing has been started, and arranges it on the memory. The program attributes may be acquired from the program guide information storage unit 12031, or may be acquired from the program output device 11 or other devices by means not shown.

  (Step S1703) The viewing tendency information configuration unit 16102 acquires the viewer identification information and places it on the memory. The viewing tendency information configuration unit 16102 acquires the viewer identification information from, for example, the viewer identification information acquisition unit 1102 of the program output device 11. In addition, the viewing tendency information configuration unit 16102 may acquire the viewer identification information by the same process as the viewer identification information acquisition unit 1102.

  (Step S1704) The viewing attitude information acquisition unit 16101 acquires viewing attitude information, which is information indicating the viewing attitude that can be acquired from the behavior of the viewer with respect to the program output by the program output unit 1105 of the program output device 11, and is stored in the memory. To place. The viewing attitude information acquisition process will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  (Step S1705) The viewing tendency information configuration unit 16102 configures viewing tendency information using the program attributes acquired in step S1702, the viewer identification information acquired in step S1703, and the viewing attitude information acquired in step S1704.

  (Step S 1706) The viewing tendency information sending unit 16103 sends the viewing tendency information configured by the viewing trend information configuring unit 16102 to the server device 162. The process ends.

  Next, the process of acquiring viewing posture information in step S1704 will be described using the flowchart of FIG.

  (Step S1801) The viewing posture information acquisition unit 16101 performs initialization processing. The initialization process is, for example, a process of substituting 0 for a variable “channel change count”, which will be described later, or clearing an array buffer “temporary attention level information”.

  (Step S1802) The viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161101 determines whether or not to end the viewing of the program. Whether or not to end the viewing of the program can be determined, for example, by recognizing a command acquired by the command acquisition unit 161013 (for example, a command to turn off the power or select another channel). If the viewing of the program is terminated, the process goes to step S1803, and if the viewing of the program is not terminated, the process goes to step S1813.

  (Step S1803) The viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161101 acquires a captured image (here, a still image) that is a viewer's image captured by a camera (not shown), and places it on the memory.

  (Step S1804) The viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161101 recognizes the face for the captured image and extracts the outline of the face. Since this process is a known technique, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

  (Step S1805) The viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161101 examines all the dots inside the outline of the face, and determines whether or not the dot has color information that is the same as or within a certain difference from the skin color information stored in advance. Determine whether. Then, the viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161101 acquires the ratio of the skin color or similar color dots from the number of inspected dots and the number of dots having the same or a difference within the skin color information.

  (Step S1806) The viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161101 determines whether or not the ratio acquired in step S1805 is equal to or greater than a predetermined ratio. If the calculated ratio is greater than or equal to the predetermined value, the process proceeds to step S1807, and if it is less than the predetermined value, the process proceeds to step S1808.

  (Step S 1807) The viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161101 adds “1” to the buffer “attention level temporary information” in the array. Go to step S1809.

  (Step S1808) The viewing frequency information acquiring unit 161101 adds “0” to the buffer “attention level temporary information” in the array.

  (Step S1809) The distance information acquisition unit 1610112 acquires distance information that is the distance between the viewer and the display that is outputting the program. For example, the size of the face outline of the photographed image may be calculated, and the distance information may be estimated and calculated. In addition, the distance information may be calculated by the above-described means.

  (Step S1810) The distance information acquisition means 161012 adds the distance information calculated in step S1809 to the memory.

  (Step S1811) The instruction acquisition unit 161013 determines whether or not an instruction to switch channels has been acquired. If a command to switch channels is acquired, the process proceeds to step S1812, and if a command to switch channels is not acquired, the process returns to step S1802.

  (Step S1812) The instruction acquisition unit 161013 increments the variable “channel change count” by one. The process returns to step S1802.

  (Step S1813) The attention level information acquisition unit (not shown) of the viewing posture information acquisition unit 16101 acquires attention level information from the temporary attention level information array and the distance information array. More specifically, for example, the attention level information acquisition unit calculates the ratio of “1” stored in the array of temporary attention level information (0 or 1). Then, for example, the attention level information acquisition unit acquires a representative value (average value or median value) of the distance information from the array of distance information. The attention level information acquisition means is an increasing function using the ratio of “1” stored in the attention level temporary information array and the representative value of the distance information as parameters, and the ratio as a parameter. Attention level information is calculated by a decreasing function using the value as a parameter. Note that the attention level information calculated here is a numerical value that can take a multi-level value, but the value is mapped and classified into “high”, “medium”, and “low” levels of attention (classified into three levels). Or may be classified into five levels.

  (Step S1814) Using the value of the variable “number of channel changes”, the viewing style information acquisition unit 161014 determines at least whether it is concentrated viewing or non-concentrated viewing, and obtains viewing style information that is information on whether or not it is concentrated viewing. get. That is, when the number of channel changes per unit time is greater than the threshold, it is determined that the viewer is not concentrated, and when the number of channel changes per unit time is less than the threshold, it is determined that the viewer is concentrated. Further, as described above, the viewing style information acquisition unit 161014 can select any one of zapping (for example, the value “1”), watching while viewing (for example, the value “2”), and constant viewing (for example, the value “3”). Viewing style information having such values may be acquired. At that time, attention level information may be used.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 18, another viewing attitude information acquisition algorithm may be employed.

  Next, the operation of the server device 162 will be described using the flowcharts of FIGS. In the flowchart of FIG. 19, only the steps different from the flowchart of FIG. 4 will be described.

  (Step S1901) The viewing request predicted program determination unit 1203 determines a viewing request predicted program using the program identification information acquired in step S402 and the viewer identification information acquired in step S403. In the process of step S1901, the viewing request prediction program determination unit 1203 normally acquires one or more pieces of program identification information, but may also acquire program attributes and the like. In the process of step S1901, the viewing request prediction program may be determined to be “0”. The viewing request predicted program determination process of the viewing request predicted program determination unit 1203 will be described in detail with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.

  (Step S1902) The quality determination unit 16205 receives the viewing tendency information of the program related to the program that is the target of the viewing request received by the request reception unit 1202, and one or more viewing requests determined by the viewing request prediction program determination unit 1203. Using the viewing tendency information of the program related to the predicted program, the video quality of the program requested for viewing is determined according to the quality constraint information in the quality constraint information storage unit 1204. The quality determination process of the quality determination unit 1205 will be described in detail with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.

  (Step S1903) The viewing tendency information reception unit 16209 determines whether or not the viewing tendency information has been received from the viewing tendency information acquisition apparatus 161. If the viewing tendency information is accepted, the process goes to step S1904. If the viewing tendency information is not accepted, the process returns to step S401.

  (Step S 1904) The viewing tendency information storage unit 1621 adds the viewing tendency information received in step S 1903 to the viewing tendency information storage unit 1201.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 19, there is no need to receive and store viewing tendency information. In such a case, viewing tendency information is input by a user's manual input, or is read from a storage medium such as an HDD or an optical disk.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 19, the process ends when the power is turned off or the process ends.

  Next, the viewing request predicted program determination process in step S1901 will be described in detail with reference to the flowcharts in FIGS. In the flowchart of FIG. 20, only differences from the flowchart of FIG. 5 will be described.

  (Step S2001) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 substitutes 1 for a counter j.

  (Step S2002) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 determines whether or not the jth program identification information exists among the one or more program identification information acquired in Step S502. If the jth program identification information exists, the process goes to step S2003, and if the jth program identification information does not exist, the process goes to step S515.

  (Step S2003) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 obtains a program attribute paired with the jth program identification information from the program guide information storage unit 12031 among the one or more pieces of program identification information acquired in Step S502. read out.

  (Step S2004) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 calculates the likelihood of viewing the program identified by the jth program identification information. A method for calculating the likelihood of viewing possibility will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  (Step S2005) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 temporarily stores the likelihood of viewing the program identified by the jth program identification information on the memory in a pair with the jth program identification information.

  (Step S2006) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 increments the counter j by 1. The process returns to step S2002.

  Note that the viewing request predicted program determination process described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 20 may be the same process as the flowchart of FIG.

  Next, the method of calculating the likelihood of viewing in step S2004 will be described in detail using the flowchart of FIG.

  (Step S2101) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 substitutes the number of program attributes read from the viewing tendency information storage unit 1201 into the variable “N”. The program attribute includes a plurality of elements (for example, genre information, day information, time zone information, program keyword, etc.).

  (Step S2102) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 substitutes 1 for the counter i.

  (Step S2103) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 determines whether or not “i <= N” is satisfied. If “i <= N” is satisfied, the process proceeds to step S2104. If “i <= N” is not satisfied, the process proceeds to step S2113.

  (Step S2104) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 acquires the i-th program attribute among the program attributes read from the viewing tendency information storage unit 1201.

  (Step S2105) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 reads the program attribute of the program that may be viewed, acquired in S2003.

  (Step S2106) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 substitutes 1 for the counter j.

  (Step S2107) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 determines whether or not the j-th element in the i-th program attribute acquired in step S2104 exists. If the jth element exists, the process goes to step S2108, and if the jth element does not exist, the process goes to step S2112.

  (Step S2108) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 compares the jth element of the program attribute acquired in step S2104 with the jth element of the program attribute read in step S2105.

  (Step S2109) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition means 12034 goes to Step S2110 if the comparison result in Step S2108 is a comparison result of “match”, and if it is a comparison result of “does not match”, Step S2111 go to. Depending on the element, “match” may be a complete match, but may partially match or be similar.

  (Step S2110) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 increments the number of entries corresponding to the jth element by one. For each element, there is a variable for storing the number of entries. Initially, the variable is initialized to “0”. The number of entries is the number of elements having the program attribute acquired in step S2104 and the elements having the program attribute read in step S2105.

  (Step S2111) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 increments the counter j by 1. Go to step S2107.

  (Step S2112) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 increments the counter i by one. Go to step S2103.

  (Step S2113) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 reads information on the viewability likelihood function. Note that the information on the likelihood of viewing possibility function is stored in the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 in advance. The information of the viewability likelihood function being stored in advance includes the case where the information of the viewability likelihood function is embedded in the program. The information of the viewability likelihood function is, for example, “α · (a / N) + β · (b / N) + γ · (c / N) + σ · (d / N)”. Α, β, γ, and δ are coefficients indicating weights, and normally satisfy “0 <= α, β, γ, δ <= 1” and “α + β + γ + δ = 1”. Further, α, β, γ, and δ are usually determined in advance.

  (Step S2114) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 substitutes the a, b, c, d, and N values into the viewability likelihood function read in Step S2113. a, b, c, and d are the number of entries of each element.

  (Step S2115) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 calculates the mathematical formula obtained by substituting each value in Step S2114.

  (Step S2116) The viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 temporarily stores the likelihood of viewing that is the calculation result in Step S2115 on the memory. Return to the top.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 21, information on the viewability likelihood function is not limited to the above, and the elements may be 5 or more and 3 or less.

  Next, the quality determination process in step S1902 will be described in detail with reference to the flowcharts in FIGS.

  (Step S2201) The viewing requester program attribute acquisition unit 162055 acquires program identification information and program attributes of a program that has been requested to be viewed, and arranges them on the memory.

  (Step S2202) The viewing requester program attribute acquisition unit 162055 acquires the viewer identification information that requested the viewing of the program, and arranges it on the memory.

  (Step S2203) The viewing requester program attribute acquisition unit 162055 acquires the viewing requester's viewing attitude information using the program identification information and the program attribute acquired in step S2201 and the viewer identification information acquired in step S2202. Place it on the memory. Processing for acquiring viewing attitude information using program identification information, program attributes, and viewer identification information will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  (Step S2204) The viewing method information acquisition unit 162051 substitutes 1 for the counter i.

  (Step S2205) The viewing method information acquisition unit 162051 determines whether or not the i-th viewing request prediction program exists. If the i-th viewing request prediction program exists, the process proceeds to step S2206. If the i-th viewing request prediction program does not exist, the process proceeds to step S2210.

  (Step S2206) The viewing method information acquisition unit 162051 acquires the program identification information and program attributes of the i-th viewing request prediction program, and arranges them on the memory.

  (Step S2207) The viewing method information acquisition unit 162051 acquires the viewer identification information of the viewing candidate corresponding to the i-th viewing request prediction program, and arranges it on the memory.

  (Step S2208) The viewing method information acquisition unit 162051 uses the i-th program identification information and program attributes acquired in step S2206, and the i-th viewer identification information acquired in step S2207 to view the viewing requester. Get information and place it in memory. Processing for acquiring viewing attitude information using program identification information, program attributes, and viewer identification information will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  (Step S2209) The viewing method information acquisition unit 162051 increments the counter i by one. The process returns to step S2205.

  (Step S2210) The quality determination unit 16205 determines the quality information of the program requested to be viewed using the viewing attitude information acquired in step S2203 and the one or more viewing attitude information acquired in step S2208. Such processing is called quality mediation processing. The quality adjustment process will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

In the flowchart of FIG. 22, the order of the processing for acquiring viewing posture information of a program for which viewing is requested may be reversed from the order of processing for acquiring viewing posture information of a predicted viewing program.
Next, viewing posture information acquisition processing in steps S2203 and S2208 will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG. The viewing attitude information acquisition process is a process of acquiring viewing attitude information using program attributes and viewer identification information.

  (Step S2301) The viewing orientation information selection unit 162052 or the viewing requester program attribute acquisition unit 162055 reads the viewing tendency information having the given viewer identification information from the viewing trend information storage unit 1201.

  (Step S2302) The viewing attitude information selection unit 162052 or the viewing requester program attribute acquisition unit 162055 receives the given program attribute from one or more program attributes included in the one or more pieces of viewing tendency information acquired in step S2301. Is selected, and one or more viewing tendency information having the program attribute is acquired. Note that the two program attributes match each other as described above is not necessarily a complete match, but may be a partial match or may be similar.

  (Step S2303) The viewing attitude information selection unit 162052 or the viewing requester viewing attitude information acquisition unit 162056 reads out one or more viewing attitude information included in each of the one or more viewing tendency information acquired in step S2302.

  (Step S2304) Predictive viewing posture information acquisition means 162053. Alternatively, the viewing requester viewing posture information acquisition unit 162056 acquires the representative value of the viewing posture information from the one or more viewing posture information read in step S2303. The process for determining the representative value of the viewing attitude information from the two or more viewing attitude information is the process described above.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 23, the viewing posture information acquisition process may be performed using only the viewer identification information. In such a case, the representative value of the viewing attitude information of one or more programs viewed by the viewer identified by the viewer identification information is acquired. The representative value may be information with the highest frequency, or an average value or a median value.

  Next, the quality mediation process in step S2210 will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart in FIG. Here, the quality mediation processing includes the representative value of the viewing attitude information of the viewer who has requested viewing, the genre information of the requested program, and the representative value of the viewing attitude information of one or more viewing candidates and the viewing candidate program. A case will be described in which quality information of a program requested to be viewed is acquired from the above genre information set.

  (Step S2401) Quality determination means 162057 substitutes 1 for counter i.

  (Step S2402) Quality determination means 162057 reads quality constraint information from quality constraint information storage section 1204.

  (Step S2403) The quality determination means 162057 reads the quality information calculation function information stored in advance. Information on the quality information calculation function may be embedded in the program.

  (Step S2404) The quality determination means 162057 determines whether or not the i-th viewer among the viewers and viewing candidates who have requested viewing exists. If the i-th viewer exists, the process goes to step S2405, and if the i-th viewer does not exist, the process goes to step S2408. This determination is made using the viewer identification information and the viewing candidate identification information.

  (Step S2405) The quality determining means 162057 displays the representative value of the viewing attitude information corresponding to the i-th viewer and the value corresponding to the genre information of the program (for example, “3” for news, “8” for movie). And the value is held corresponding to the genre information) and is substituted into the quality information calculation function indicated by the information of the quality information calculation function read in step S2403.

  (Step S2406) The quality determination means 162057 executes the quality information calculation function acquired in step S2405, and acquires viewer-specific quality information that is quality information corresponding to the i-th viewer (viewer identification information). Then, the quality determination means 162057 temporarily stores the calculated viewer-specific quality information on the memory in a pair with the i-th viewer identification information.

  (Step S2407) The quality determination means 162057 increments the counter i by 1. The process returns to step S2404.

  (Step S2408) The quality determination unit 162057 uses the quality constraint information read in step S2402 and the two or more viewer-specific quality information stored in the memory in step S2406 to obtain the quality information of the program requested to be viewed. decide. For example, the quality determination means 162057 has a bandwidth of “1 giga” for the quality constraint information, there are two viewing candidates, the quality information by viewer of the program requested to be viewed is “8”, viewing When the quality information by viewer of the candidate viewing candidate program is “3” and “5”, the quality information of the program requested to be viewed is “1 giga × 8 / (8 + 3 + 5) = 500 mega”. And the quality information of the program requested to be viewed is determined as “500 mega”.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 24, assuming that the viewing candidate program is not viewed, the calculation may be performed with the weight set to “0.5”. That is, “3” and “5” of the viewer-specific quality information are multiplied by the weight “0.5” to be “1.5” and “2.5”, and the quality information of the program requested to be viewed as described above May be calculated as “1 giga × 8 / (8 + 1.5 + 2.5) = about 667 mega”. In addition, the viewing candidate may consider the frequency of viewing the program, convert the frequency to a probability value, and multiply the probability value for each viewer of the viewing candidate program.

  Hereinafter, a specific operation of the program output system in the present embodiment will be described. The viewer information management table stored in the viewer information storage means 11022 in the program output device 11 is shown in FIG. The program guide information management table stored in the program guide information storage means 12031 of the server device 12 is shown in FIG.

  FIG. 25 is a viewing tendency information management table of the viewing tendency information storage unit 1201 of the server device 12. The viewing tendency information management table is a table having one or more viewing tendency information, which is information about programs viewed by viewing candidates in the past. The viewing tendency information management table has attributes of “ID”, “viewer identification information”, “program attribute”, and “viewing attitude information”. Here, “program attribute” has attributes of “broadcast day”, “broadcast time zone”, “program genre”, and “program keyword”. Here, the “viewing attitude information” has attributes of “attention level information” and “viewing style information”. Here, “attention level information” indicates the degree of attention to the program when the viewer identified by the viewer identification information of the corresponding record in the viewing tendency information management table is viewing the corresponding program. To a numerical value of 100. In addition, the “viewing style information” here takes one of the values “zapping”, “watch while watching”, and “constant viewing” (this may also be a numerical value). An example of the attention level information and viewing style information acquisition algorithm will be described later.

  Furthermore, the program storage table stored in the program storage unit 1301 of the program distribution server device 13 is shown in FIG. Further, it is assumed that it is 19:00 on October 24, 2006.

  Here, first, a process performed by the viewing tendency information acquisition apparatus 161, a process of acquiring viewing attitude information having attention level information and viewing style information will be described.

  The viewing tendency information configuration unit 16102 detects that viewing of the program has started. The viewing tendency information configuration unit 16102 may receive the program viewing start information from the program output device 11, or a separate remote control receiving unit that is the same as the remote control receiving unit that receives a signal from the remote control included in the program output device 11. You may hold it. In addition, the method of detecting that the viewing of the program has started is not limited.

  Then, the viewing tendency information configuration unit 16102 acquires the program attributes of the program whose viewing has been started and arranges them on the memory. The program attributes may be acquired from the program guide information storage unit 12031, or may be acquired from the program output device 11 or other devices by means not shown. Then, the viewing tendency information configuration unit 16102 acquires the viewer identification information and arranges it on the memory. For example, the viewing tendency information configuration unit 16102 acquires the viewer identification information from the viewer identification information acquisition unit 1102 of the program output device 11.

  Next, the viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161011 periodically (for example, every second) captures a captured image (here, a still image) that is a viewer's image captured by a camera (not shown). Obtain and place on memory. Next, the viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161101 recognizes the face for the captured image and extracts the outline of the face. The viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161011 inspects all the dots inside the outline of the face, and determines whether or not the dot has color information that is the same as or within a predetermined difference from the skin color information stored in advance. to decide. Then, the viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161101 acquires the ratio of the skin color or similar color dots from the number of inspected dots and the number of dots having the same or a difference within the skin color information. Then, the viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161011 determines whether or not the acquired ratio is equal to or greater than a predetermined ratio. If the calculated ratio is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, “1” (“1” indicates that the viewer is facing the screen and paying attention to the program) is added to the buffer “temporary attention level information” of the array. . If the calculated ratio is less than the predetermined value, “0” (“0” in the buffer “attention level temporary information” in the array indicates that the viewer is not facing the screen and is looking away or is seated. (Indicating that the program has not been paid attention to, such as removed) Further, the distance information acquisition unit 161012 acquires distance information that is the distance between the viewer and the display that is outputting the program. Then, using the attention level temporary information and the distance information, for example, every second, it is determined whether or not the program is focused. “1” if the program is focused, “0” if the program is not focused. "Is added to the array. In addition, it is inclined in a direction not paying attention as the distance increases. Such processing is performed until the end of the program or until the viewer ends viewing. Then, the attention level information acquisition unit (not shown) of the viewing posture information acquisition unit 16101 calculates the ratio of “1” in the array as a value from “0 to 100” (that is,%), which is calculated as the attention level information. Is temporarily stored in the memory.

  Next, the viewing style information acquisition unit 161014 uses the information of “1” and “0” determined by the attention level information acquisition unit and written in the array, and the time zone concentrated on the program is the program broadcast time. For example, when the band is 70% or more, “concentrated viewing” is determined, and when it is less than 70%, “non-concentrated viewing” is determined. Then, the viewing style information acquisition unit 161014 temporarily stores the determined information “concentrated viewing” or “non-concentrated viewing” on the memory. Here, “concentrated viewing” or “non-concentrated viewing” stored in the memory is information that is the basis of the final viewing style information, but “concentrated viewing” or “non-concentrated viewing” is the final information. It may be viewing style information.

  Next, the command acquisition means 161013 acquires the frequency of acquiring a command to switch channels during the broadcast time period of the target program (the counter is incremented by 1 each time a command to switch channels is acquired) Store temporarily in memory.

  The viewing style information acquisition means 161014 is “concentrated viewing” (when the time zone concentrated on the program is, for example, 70% or more of the program broadcast time zone), and the number of times the command to switch channels is acquired. Is less than a predetermined number of times with respect to the broadcast time, the viewing style information is determined as “constant viewing”. Also, the viewing style information acquisition unit 161014 is “concentrated viewing”, and when the number of acquisition of the command to switch channels is equal to or greater than the predetermined number of times relative to the broadcast time, the viewing style information is determined as “zapping”. . Also, the viewing style information acquisition unit 161014 determines that the viewing style information is “while watching” in the case of “non-concentrated viewing”. Here, “watching while watching” does not relate to the acquisition frequency of the command for switching the channel. Note that the viewing style information acquisition means 161014 reads the above-mentioned rules (rules when the viewing style information is determined to be “constant viewing”, rules when the viewing style information is determined to be “zapping”, and viewing style information while ”Is determined in advance).

  Through the above processing, the viewing posture information acquisition unit 16101 acquires attention level information and viewing style information. And viewing tendency information constituent part 16102 constitutes viewing tendency information using the acquired program attribute, viewer identification information, and viewing attitude information (attention level information and viewing style information). Next, the viewing tendency information sending unit 16103 sends the viewing tendency information configured by the viewing tendency information configuring unit 16102 to the server device 162.

  Then, the viewing tendency information reception unit 16209 of the server device 162 receives the viewing tendency information from the viewing tendency information acquisition device 161. Next, the viewing tendency information storage unit 1621 adds the received viewing tendency information to the viewing tendency information storage unit 1201. And the viewing tendency information group comprised in this way is the viewing tendency information management table | surface of FIG.

  In this situation, it is assumed that the viewer identified by the viewer identifier “01” has pressed the “8ch” button on the remote control.

  Then, the reception unit 1101 of the program output device 11 receives a viewing request corresponding to “8ch”. Then, the request transmission unit 1103 acquires the program identification information “104” of the program corresponding to the current time “October 24, 2006, 19:00” “8ch”. Here, the program identification information is the value of “ID” in the electronic program guide of FIG.

  Next, the photographing means 11021, which is a camera facing the same direction as the screen of the program output device 11, photographs the viewer's face identified by the viewer identifier “01”, and the viewer identification information acquisition unit 1102. Obtains an image of the face of the viewer who has input the viewing request. Then, the viewer video recognition unit 11023 extracts features from the viewer's face image and constructs a feature vector. In addition, the viewer video recognition unit 11023 sequentially reads the viewer's video in the viewer information management table of FIG. 8 and acquires the feature vector. Then, the feature vector extracted from the image of the face of the viewer who requested viewing is compared with each feature vector extracted from each video of the viewer in the viewer information management table, and paired with the closest feature vector. The viewer identification information “01” is acquired from the viewer information management table of FIG.

  Then, the request transmission unit 1103 configures a viewing request “send 104” using the program identification information “104”. Then, the request transmission unit 1103 transmits the viewing request “send 104” and the viewer identification information “01” to the server device 12.

  Next, the request receiving unit 1202 receives the viewing request “send 104” and the viewer identification information “01” from the program output device 11.

  Then, the viewing request predicted program determining unit 1203 determines the viewing request predicted program using the acquired program identification information “104” and the acquired viewer identification information “01”. That is, the requested program time zone information acquisition unit 12032 sets the time zone information in the program attribute paired with the read program identification information “104” from the program table information management table (see FIG. 9) of the program table information storage unit 12031. “19: 00-21: 00: 00” is read and placed on the memory. Next, the output candidate program information acquisition unit 12033 searches the program guide information storage unit 12031 using the acquired time zone information “19: 00-210: 00”, and broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed. One or more pieces of output candidate program information, which is information about a program broadcast inside, is acquired and placed on the memory. FIG. 12 shows one or more output candidate program information (output candidate program management table) arranged on the memory. The output candidate program management table manages one or more records having attributes of “ID”, “day of the week”, “station identifier”, “broadcast time zone”, “title”, “genre”, “performer”, and “program overview”. . However, the structure of the output candidate program management table is not limited to the structure of FIG.

  Next, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 reads one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information “01” received by the request receiving unit 1202. In this specific example, as shown in FIG. 8, the viewer identification information of all viewer candidates is stored in the program output device 11, but the server device 12 is the viewer candidate of all viewer candidates. Identification information may be stored. Here, description will be made assuming that the server device 12 also stores the viewer identification information of all the candidate viewers. That is, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 reads three pieces of viewer identification information (“02”, “03”, “04”) excluding the viewer identification information “01” received by the request receiving unit 1202.

  Next, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 performs processing from the first viewer identification information “02” in the read three viewer identification information. That is, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 views a program viewed by the viewer identified by the first viewer identification information “02” in a predetermined period (here, the latest six months). One or more program attributes included in the trend information are retrieved from the viewing trend information management table (see FIG. 25) of the viewing trend information storage unit 1201 and acquired. Then, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 obtains the specific viewer viewing tendency information management table shown in FIG. Here, the structure of the specific viewer viewing tendency information management table is the same as the structure of the viewing tendency information management table of FIG. However, the specific viewer viewing tendency information management table shown in FIG. 26 does not necessarily have all the attributes of the viewing tendency information management table of FIG. That is, the specific viewer viewing tendency information management table shown in FIG. 26 also includes viewing posture information, but does not need to include viewing posture information. Further, the specific viewer viewing tendency information management table shown in FIG.

  Next, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 reads all the program identification information and program attributes of the program broadcast during the broadcast time period in which the viewing request is made, from the program guide information storage unit 12031. Then, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 obtains an output candidate program management table shown in FIG. A program corresponding to the read program identification information is called an output candidate program.

  Then, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 calculates the likelihood of viewing possibility for each output candidate program from the program identification information and the program attribute of the read output candidate program as follows.

  That is, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 has the number of program attributes of the program that is a viewing candidate read from the viewing tendency information storage unit 1201 (here, the number of records in the specific viewer viewing tendency information management table in FIG. 26). Is substituted into the variable “N”. Then, for each output candidate program, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 indicates that each element of the program attribute (broadcast day, broadcast time zone, program genre, program keyword) corresponding to the output candidate program is the specific viewing of FIG. The number which matches one or more elements of the program attribute which the record of the person viewing tendency information management table has is calculated. For example, a certain output candidate program has “a” as the number of records in which the broadcast day of a certain output candidate program matches the broadcast day of one or more records in the specific viewer viewing tendency information management table of FIG. The number of records in which the broadcast time zone and the broadcast time zone of one or more records in the specific viewer viewing tendency information management table of FIG. 26 match is “b”, the program genre of a certain output candidate program, and the specification of FIG. The number of records in which the program genre of one or more records in the viewer viewing tendency information management table matches is “c”, the program keyword of a certain output candidate program, and one or more in the specific viewer viewing tendency information management table of FIG. It is assumed that the number of records that match the program keyword of the record of “d” is “d”. Then, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 converts the viewability likelihood for the output candidate program into a viewability likelihood function “α · (a / N) + β · (b / N) + γ · (c / N) + σ · (d / N) ”. That is, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 converts the acquired “N”, “a”, “b”, “c”, and “d” into a viewability likelihood function “α · (a / N) + β · (b / N) + γ · (c / N) + σ · (d / N) ”to obtain the likelihood of viewability and place it on the memory in pairs with the program identification information. Α, β, γ, and δ are coefficients indicating weights, and normally satisfy “0 <= α, β, γ, δ <= 1” and “α + β + γ + δ = 1”. Α, β, γ, and δ are determined in advance. Then, the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 calculates the viewability likelihood for all output candidate programs for each viewing candidate, and corresponds to the program identification information having the largest viewability likelihood. The program is a viewing request prediction program. Then, it is assumed that the viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 12034 has obtained the viewing request predicted program management table shown in FIG.

  Next, the quality determination unit 16205 performs quality determination processing as follows, and obtains quality information of a program that has been requested to be viewed. That is, the viewing requester program attribute acquisition means 162055 has the program identification information “104” of the program requested to be viewed, the program attribute “broadcast day: Tuesday, broadcast time zone: 19: 00-21: 0, program genre: sports , Program keyword: Ichiro Hara,..., And the viewer identification information “01” requested to view the program is acquired and placed in the memory.

  Then, the quality determination unit 16205 predicts the viewing attitude information of the program identified by the program identification information “104” of the viewer corresponding to the viewer identification information “01” as follows.

  That is, the viewing requester program attribute acquisition unit 162055 reads one or more viewing tendency information having the given viewer identification information “01” from the viewing tendency information storage unit 1201. For example, the viewing requester program attribute acquisition unit 162055 obtains the viewing requester viewing tendency information management table shown in FIG. The structure of the viewing requester viewing tendency information management table shown in FIG. 27 is the same as that of the specific viewer viewing tendency information management table of FIG.

  Next, the viewing attitude information selection unit 162052 or the viewing requester program attribute acquisition unit 162055 is given from one or more program attributes included in each record of the viewing requester viewing tendency information management table shown in FIG. One or more program attributes that match the program attribute (here, “genre information”) are selected, and one or more viewing tendency information having the program attribute is acquired. The acquired one or more viewing tendency information is shown in FIG. Then, the viewing requester viewing posture information acquisition unit 162056 reads one or more viewing posture information (attention level information and viewing style information) included in each of the one or more viewing tendency information in FIG.

  Next, the viewing requester viewing posture information acquisition unit 162056 acquires a representative value of the viewing posture information from one or more viewing posture information. That is, here, the viewing requester viewing posture information acquisition unit 162056 acquires the average value “80” of the attention level information “72”, “80”, and “88” and arranges it on the memory. Also, the viewing requester viewing posture information acquisition unit 162056 obtains the most frequent viewing style information “constant viewing” in the viewing style information and arranges it on the memory. This “attention level information: 80, viewing style information: constant viewing” is a representative value of viewing attitude information.

  Next, for the viewing candidates “02” and “03”, based on the table of FIG. 14, representative values of viewing posture information as shown in FIG. 29 are obtained in the same manner. And the quality determination means 162057 performs quality mediation processing as follows.

  First, the quality determination unit 162057 reads the quality constraint information “1 giga” from the quality constraint information storage unit 1204. The quality determining unit 162057 reads the information of the quality information calculation function “predicted viewing information × predicted viewing style information” stored in advance. Here, the “predictive viewing style information” is information obtained by converting the viewing style into a numerical value, and is zapping “1”, watching “2”, and constant viewing “3”.

  Then, the quality determination means 162057 obtains “80 × 3 = 240” for the viewer identification information “01”. For the viewer identification information “02”, the quality determination unit 162057 obtains “48 × 2 = 96”. Furthermore, for the viewer identification information “03”, the quality determination unit 162057 obtains “32 × 2 = 64”.

  Next, the quality determination means 162057 obtains viewer-specific quality information “01: 240, 02:96, 03:64” paired with each viewer identification information, and stores it in the memory.

  Next, the quality determination unit 162057 calculates the quality information of the program requested to be viewed as “1 giga × 240 / (240 + 96 + 64)”. The quality determination means 162057 calculates “600 mega” as the quality information of the program requested to be viewed and places it on the memory.

  Then, the distribution request transmission unit 1206 constitutes a distribution request for a program including program identification information “104” and quality information “600 mega” that is information about the determined video quality. The distribution request is, for example, “send 104, 600”. Then, the distribution request transmission unit 1206 transmits the configured distribution request “send 104, 600” to the program distribution server device 13.

  Next, the distribution request receiving unit 1302 sends a program distribution request “send 104, 600” including program identification information for identifying a program and quality information that is information about video quality constituting the program from the server device 12. Receive. Then, the program acquisition unit 1303 acquires the program identification information “104” and the quality information “600” included in the received distribution request, and arranges them on the memory.

  Next, the program acquisition unit 1303 sequentially reads out the programs identified by the acquired program identification information “104” from the program storage unit 1301. Then, the program distribution unit 1304 sequentially changes the read programs to the video quality indicated by the acquired quality information “600”, and obtains data of the programs to be distributed. Then, the program distribution unit 1304 distributes programs whose video quality has been changed to the server device 12 one after another.

  Next, in response to transmission of the distribution request “send 104, 600”, the program relay receiving unit 1207 of the server device 12 sequentially selects programs identified by the program identification information “104” included in the distribution request. Received from the distribution server device 13. Then, the program relay transmission unit 1208 sequentially transmits the received program (part of the program) to the program output device 11.

  Next, the program receiving unit 1104 of the program output device 11 receives a program corresponding to the viewing request from the server device 12. Then, the program output unit 1105 outputs the received program.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to accurately output a video (content) having a quality corresponding to the viewing tendency of a program of a plurality of people. At that time, the quality of the program is determined according to the viewing attitude of the viewer (whether it is concentrated viewing, the degree of attention to the program, etc.), and the program according to the quality is provided. In other words, according to the present embodiment, a program output system that appropriately mediates and controls the resource allocation of a limited information communication infrastructure so as to improve satisfaction with respect to the quality of the total multimedia of a plurality of people. Can provide.

  In addition, the program attributes such as the program broadcast day, program broadcast time zone, program genre, and program summary of each program broadcasted during the reproduction of the requested video are compared with corresponding program attributes of one or more viewing tendency information, Since the likelihood of viewing possibility is calculated for each program, it is possible to extract a program having an appropriate viewing possibility for each viewing candidate.

  Note that the software that implements the information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment is the following program. In other words, the program causes the computer to receive a viewing request and a viewer identification information, and one or more viewer identification information corresponding to one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit. The viewing tendency information is read from the storage medium, and one or more viewing candidates who are viewers other than the viewer who has input the viewing request using the one or more viewing tendency information are targeted for the viewing request. Related to a viewing request predicted program determining unit that determines one or more viewing request predicted programs that are programs that may be requested during the broadcast time of the program, and a program that is the target of the viewing request received by the receiving unit Using the viewing tendency information of the program to be played and the viewing tendency information of the program related to the one or more viewing request prediction programs determined by the viewing request prediction program determination unit, according to the stored quality constraint information. A quality determining unit that determines the video quality of the program that is the target of the viewing request received by the receiving unit, program identification information that identifies the program, and quality information that is information about the video quality determined by the quality determining unit A distribution request transmitting unit that transmits a distribution request for the program to the program distribution server device; a program relay receiving unit that receives the program from the program distribution server device in response to the transmission of the distribution request for the program; A program for causing a program received by the program relay receiving unit to function as a program relay transmitting unit that transmits the program to the program output device.

In the above program, the viewing tendency information includes viewing attitude information that is information indicating a viewing attitude of the viewer with respect to the output program and program attributes of the output program, and the computer is configured to predict the viewing request. The program determination unit is configured to display program guide information including program identification information of a program to be broadcast and one or more program information having program attributes having time zone information indicating a broadcast time zone of the program identified by the program identification information. The stored program guide information storage means, the requested program time zone information acquisition means for acquiring time zone information paired with the program identification information included in the viewing request, and the program guide information storage means include the time zone information. Output candidate program information acquisition means for acquiring output candidate program information which is information about a program broadcast during the broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed and searched using Output candidates acquired by the output candidate program information acquisition means using one or more program attributes of one or more viewing tendency information corresponding to one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the receiving unit Information about a program that is likely to be viewed by one or more viewing candidates identified by one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit from program information. The request determining program information obtaining means for obtaining the viewing request predicted program information having the function is provided, and the quality determination unit is configured to obtain, for each viewing request predicted program information obtained by the viewing request predicted program information obtaining means, One or more program attributes possessed by one or more pieces of viewing tendency information corresponding to another program viewed by a viewer predicted to view the program corresponding to the viewing request predicted program information, and The viewing method information acquisition unit that acquires one or more viewing attitude information from the viewing tendency information storage unit, and the viewing method information acquisition unit acquires a program attribute that matches a program attribute included in the viewing request prediction program information Selection from one or more program attributes, viewing attitude information selection means for selecting one or more viewing attitude information paired with the selected program attributes, and one or more viewing attitude information selected by the viewing attitude information selection means Using the predicted viewing attitude information acquisition means for acquiring the predicted viewing attitude information, which is the viewing attitude information of the program corresponding to the viewing request predicted program information, and the program identification information included in the viewing request received by the request receiving unit The program attribute of the program identified by is matched with the program attribute acquired by the viewing request program attribute acquisition means that acquires from the program guide information storage means and the viewing request program attribute acquisition means Acquire one or more program attributes of one or more viewing tendency information that are program attributes and are information about a program viewed by a viewer identified by the viewer identification information acquired by the viewer identification information acquisition unit. Viewing requester program attribute acquisition means, viewing requester viewing attitude information acquisition means for acquiring viewing attitude information of a program corresponding to one or more program attributes acquired by the viewing requester program attribute acquisition means, and the quality constraint information In accordance with the viewing requester viewing posture information acquisition unit and the predicted viewing posture information acquired by the predicted viewing posture information acquisition unit. A program that functions as a device that includes quality determining means for determining video quality.
(Embodiment 3)

  In the present embodiment, a video (content) having a quality corresponding to the viewing tendency of programs of a plurality of people is output. At that time, taking into account information about the candidate's schedule and current situation, such as the current position, determine whether the candidate can make a viewing request during the broadcast time of the requested program. A program output system that performs the processing as described in the second embodiment will be described, assuming that only those who may request it are viewing candidates. Note that the present embodiment is different from the second embodiment in that narrowing-down processing of viewing candidates who may be able to make viewing requests is performed.

  FIG. 30 is a block diagram of the program output system in the present embodiment. The program output system includes a program output device 11, a viewing tendency information acquisition device 161, a server device 302, and a program distribution server device 13.

  The server apparatus 302 includes a viewing tendency information storage unit 1201, a request receiving unit 1202, a viewing request predicted program determining unit 30203, a quality constraint information storing unit 1204, a quality determining unit 16205, a distribution request transmitting unit 1206, a program relay receiving unit 1207, a program A relay transmission unit 1208, a viewing tendency information reception unit 16209, and a viewing tendency information storage unit 16210 are provided.

  The viewing request predicted program determination unit 30203 includes a program guide information storage unit 12031, a requested program time zone information acquisition unit 12032, an action status information acquisition unit 302031, a viewing candidate identification information acquisition unit 302032, an output candidate program information acquisition unit 12033, A request prediction program information acquisition unit 12034 is provided.

  The behavior situation information acquisition unit 302031 includes schedule information storage unit 3020311 and viewing candidate position information acquisition unit 3020312.

  The viewing candidate identification information acquisition unit 302032 includes a program output position information storage unit 3020321 and a viewing possibility determination unit 3020322.

  The viewing request prediction program determination unit 30203 uses a piece of viewing tendency information corresponding to one or more pieces of viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit 1202, and is not a viewer who has input a viewing request. One or more viewing candidates that are likely to be viewed are determined, and one or more viewer identification information corresponding to the one or more viewing candidates is acquired and arranged on the memory. Then, the one or more viewing candidates with the possibility of viewing determined determine one or more viewing request prediction programs that may be requested to be viewed during the broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed, At least the program identification information of the program is acquired and placed on the memory. Note that one or more viewing candidates that can be viewed are determined using the schedule information and current position information of each candidate. The viewing request predicted program determination unit 30203 can be usually realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the viewing request prediction program determination unit 30203 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded in a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The behavior status information acquisition unit 302031 indicates the behavior and status of each viewing candidate identified by one or more viewing candidate identification information in the time zone indicated by the time zone information acquired by the requested program time zone information acquisition unit 12032. Action status information, which is information to be shown, is acquired and placed on the memory. The behavior status information is schedule information that is information about a schedule, position information indicating a current position, or the like. The behavior status information acquisition unit 302031 can be usually realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the behavior status information acquisition unit 302031 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded on a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The viewing candidate identification information acquisition unit 302032 is one or more viewing candidates who are viewers other than the viewer who has input the viewing request, and from the behavior situation information obtained by the behavior situation information obtaining unit 302031, the requested program time zone One or more viewing candidate identification information, which is information for identifying one or more viewing candidates who can view the program in the time zone indicated by the time zone information acquired by the information acquisition unit 12032, is acquired and arranged on the memory. . The viewing candidate identification information acquisition unit 302032 can usually be realized by an MPU, a memory, or the like. The processing procedure of the viewing candidate identification information acquisition unit 302032 is usually realized by software, and the software is recorded in a recording medium such as a ROM. However, it may be realized by hardware (dedicated circuit).

  The schedule information storage means 3020311 stores schedule information indicating the action schedule of each viewing candidate identified by each viewer identification information in combination with one or more viewer identification information. The schedule information includes, for example, information indicating a date, a time zone, and a schedule. Note that the schedule information of everyone who has the possibility of viewing is not always stored. The schedule information may be, for example, information on only a date, a time zone, and whether or not there is a plan to go out. The schedule information storage means 3020311 may store only one person's schedule information. For example, the schedule information from the user input by an input unit (not shown) is received, and the schedule information is accumulated in the schedule information storage unit 3020311 by an accumulation unit (not shown). The schedule information storage unit 3020311 is preferably a non-volatile recording medium, but can also be realized by a volatile recording medium.

  The viewing candidate position information acquisition unit 3020312 receives position information that is information on the current position of each viewing candidate identified by one or more pieces of viewer identification information. The viewing candidate position information acquisition unit 3020312 receives the current position information, for example, from a mobile phone with a GPS function, as a pair with the viewer identification information (for example, the phone number of the mobile phone). The viewing candidate position information acquisition means 3020312 can be realized by a GPS receiver and its driver software.

  The program output position information storage means 3020321 stores program output position information, which is information on the position where the program is output. The program output position information is, for example, the location where the house is located, and has a data structure of (longitude, latitude). The program output position information storage unit 3020321 is preferably a non-volatile recording medium, but can also be realized by a volatile recording medium.

  The viewing possibility determining unit 3020322 uses the schedule information of each viewing candidate accumulated in the schedule information storage unit 3020311 to determine whether each viewing candidate identified by one or more viewing candidate identification information is a requested program. It is determined whether or not the program can be viewed in the time zone indicated by the time zone information acquired by the time zone information acquisition unit 12032. That is, whether or not the viewing candidate can watch in the time zone indicated by the time zone information acquired by the requested program time zone information acquisition unit 12032 (whether there is no other schedule) is determined based on the time zone. If other schedules are included in the time period, the viewing candidate determines not to make a program viewing request. In addition, the viewing possibility determining unit 3020322 uses the position information of each viewing candidate acquired by the viewing candidate position information acquiring unit 3020312 and the program output position information of the program output position information storage unit 3020321 to each viewing candidate. However, it is determined whether or not the program can be viewed in the time zone indicated by the time zone information acquired by the requested program time zone information acquisition unit 12032. In other words, using the position information of the viewing candidate, it is possible to return home whether or not the viewing candidate may be at home in the time zone indicated by the time zone information acquired by the requested program time zone information acquisition unit 12032. It is determined whether or not a viewing candidate is not likely to be at home, a person who cannot return home, or the like does not make a viewing request.

  Next, the operation of the server device 302 constituting the program output system will be described. The operation of the server apparatus 302 differs from that of the server apparatus 162 only in the algorithm for acquiring the viewer identification information of the viewing candidate. Therefore, in the operation of the server apparatus 302, only a part of the viewing request identification information determination process in step S1901 is different from the operation of FIG. 19 in the operation of the server apparatus 162. More specifically, the processing for acquiring the viewer identification information of the viewing candidate in step S503 in FIG. Processing for acquiring the viewer identification information of the viewing candidate in the server device 302 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Regarding other processes, the operation of the server apparatus 302 is the same as the operation of the server apparatus 162.

  (Step S3101) The viewing candidate identification information acquisition unit 302032 reads one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit 1202.

  (Step S3102) The viewing candidate identification information acquisition unit 302032 substitutes 1 for the counter i.

  (Step S3103) The viewing candidate identification information acquisition unit 302032 determines whether or not the i-th viewer identification information is present among the one or more viewer identification information read in Step S3101. If the i-th viewer identification information exists, the process goes to step S3104. If the i-th viewer identification information does not exist, the process returns to the upper process.

  (Step S3104) The viewing possibility determination unit 3020322 of the viewing candidate identification information acquisition unit 302032 reads the schedule information of the viewing candidate identified by the i-th viewer identification information from the schedule information storage unit 3020311.

  (Step S3105) The viewing possibility determining means 3020322 determines whether or not a schedule is included in all time zones during the broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed (whether schedule information exists). If there is no schedule, go to step S3106, and if there is a schedule, go to step S3109. Note that if there is a schedule even during a part of the broadcast time of a program for which viewing is requested, an algorithm that goes to step S3109 as “scheduled” may be used. If the schedule information of the viewing candidate identified by the i-th viewer identification information cannot be acquired, “no plan” is preferable.

  (Step S3106) The viewing candidate position information acquisition means 3020312 of the behavior status information acquisition means 302031 acquires the current position information of the person identified by the i-th viewer identification information. The position information is, for example, (latitude, longitude).

  (Step S3107) The viewing possibility determination unit 3020322 of the viewing candidate identification information acquisition unit 302032 uses the current position information acquired in step S3106, during the broadcast time of the program requested by the viewing candidate. It is determined whether or not the program can be viewed. That is, the viewing possibility determining unit 3020322 reads the program output position information stored in the program output position information storage unit 3020321 and arranges it on the memory. Then, the viewability determination unit 3020322 uses both the current position information of the person identified by the i-th viewer identification information acquired in step S3106 and the program output position information (for example, viewing candidate and home). The distance is calculated. Then, using the distance and the broadcast time of the program for which viewing is requested, it is determined whether or not the person identified by the i-th viewer identification information can return home during the broadcast time. Various determination methods are conceivable. That is, the nearest station is obtained from the current position information, the nearest station is obtained from the home position, and the information of the two stations is substituted into, for example, an application that presents the shortest route (for example, Jordan). Get time. Then, the shortest time and the broadcast time of the program may be compared to determine whether or not the person identified by the i-th viewer identification information can return home during the broadcast time. Further, the viewability determination unit 3020322 may determine that viewing is not possible when the distance between the two (for example, the viewing candidate and the home) is a predetermined distance or more (for example, 1 km or more). Also, the viewability determination unit 3020322 uses traffic information regarding traffic jams and accidents, for example, whether or not a person identified by the viewer identification information traveling by car can return home during the broadcast time. You may judge. For this determination, for example, VICS information transmitted from a car navigation system mounted on the car is used. Further, information on the required time to the destination determined by the car navigation system installed in the automobile (assuming that the destination is set at home) is received by means (not shown) of the server device 302. It is preferable that the viewing possibility determining unit 3020322 determines whether or not the person identified by the viewer identification information can go home during the broadcast time by using the information of the required time. If it is viewable, go to step S3108, and if not viewable, go to step S3109.

  (Step S3108) The viewing possibility determining means 3020322 adds the i-th viewer identification information to a predetermined buffer. The predetermined buffer is a buffer for storing viewer identification information for identifying a viewing candidate with a possibility of viewing, and the area is secured on the memory.

  (Step S3109) The viewing possibility determining means 3020322 increments the counter i by 1. Return to step S3103.

  Hereinafter, a specific operation of the program output system in the present embodiment will be described.

  Now, the schedule information storage means 3020311 stores a schedule management table as shown in FIG. The schedule management table is a table that stores schedule information indicating an action schedule of each viewing candidate identified by each viewer identification information in combination with one or more viewer identification information. The schedule management table has attributes of “viewer identification information” and “schedule information”. The “schedule information” includes information on “date”, “time zone”, and “schedule information”. The “schedule information” includes the contents of the schedule, and it is assumed here that the schedule for viewing the program is not included. That is, here, it is assumed that it is determined that viewing cannot be performed in a time zone in which “schedule information” is not NULL. The structure of the schedule management table in FIG. 32 is an example.

  Further, it is assumed that the program output position information storage unit 3020321 stores position information (x1, y1) indicating the position of the home.

  In such a situation, the server device 302 will be described with regard to a process of narrowing down viewing candidates. First, similarly to the processing in the first and second embodiments, the viewing candidate identification information acquisition unit 302032 identifies family member identification information (viewing candidate viewer identification information) excluding the viewing requester “02” “03”. “04” is acquired.

  Next, whether or not the viewing possibility determining means 3020322 is viewable in the time zone “2006/10/24 19: 00-21: 0 00” in which the person identified by the identification information “02” requested viewing. The determination is made as follows. That is, the viewability determination unit 3020322 reads the schedule information of the person identified by the identification information “02” and places it on the memory. Next, the viewing possibility determining unit 3020322 determines whether or not a schedule is included in all the time zones in the broadcasting time “2006/10/24 19: 00-21: 00: 00” of the program requested to be viewed. To do. Here, it is determined that there is no schedule information for the person identified by the identification information “02” during the broadcasting time “2006/10/24 19: 00-21: 0”.

  Next, it is assumed that the viewing candidate position information acquisition unit 3020312 has received the current position information (x2, y2) of the person identified by the identification information “02”. The viewing possibility determining unit 3020322 calculates the distance between both points from the position information (x1, y1) indicating the position of the home and the current position information (x2, y2) of the person identified by the identification information “02”. calculate. Here, it is assumed that the distance is “10 m”. The viewing possibility determining means 3020322 determines that the person identified by the identification information “02” is a viewing candidate, and records the first viewer identification information “02” in a predetermined buffer.

  Next, whether or not the viewing possibility determining means 3020322 is viewable in the time zone “2006/10/24 19: 00-21: 0 00” when the person identified by the identification information “03” requested viewing. The determination is made as follows. In other words, the viewing possibility judging means 3020322 is the schedule information “date: 2006/10/24, time zone: 18: 00-23: 00, schedule information: meeting of the neighborhood association of the person identified by the identification information“ 03 ”. Information such as “others” is read and placed on the memory. Next, the viewing possibility determining unit 3020322 determines whether or not a schedule is included in all the time zones in the broadcasting time “2006/10/24 19: 00-21: 00: 00” of the program requested to be viewed. To do. Here, from the read schedule information “Date: 2006/10/24, Time zone: 18: 00-23: 00, Schedule information: Meeting of the neighborhood association, etc.”, the viewing possibility determining means 3020322 determines the viewing request. It is determined that there is a plan during the broadcast time of the program “2006/10/24 19: 00-21: 00: 00”, and the person identified by the identification information “03” is excluded from the viewing candidates.

  Next, whether or not the viewing possibility determining means 3020322 is viewable in the time zone “2006/10/24 19: 00-21: 0 00” when the person identified by the identification information “04” requested viewing. Whether or not is determined in the same manner as described above. Since there is “date: 2006/10/24, time zone: 18: 00-22: 00, schedule information: cram school (arithmetic / language)” in the schedule information of the person identified by the identification information “04”, The viewing possibility determining unit 3020322 excludes the person identified by the identification information “04” from the viewing candidates.

  Through the above processing, the viewing candidates are limited to those identified by the identification information “02”. Thereafter, processing similar to that described in Embodiment 2 is performed, the quality of the program requested to be viewed is determined, and distribution of the program is requested. Then, the program output device 11 outputs a requested quality program.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to output a video (content) of quality according to the viewing tendency of a program of a plurality of people with higher accuracy. At that time, the resource allocation of the limited information communication infrastructure can be appropriately arbitrated and controlled using the result of determining whether or not the viewing candidate is truly viewable. Also, the quality of the program is determined according to the viewing attitude of the viewer (whether it is concentrated viewing or not, the degree of attention to the program, etc.), and the program according to the quality is provided.

  In the present embodiment, as in the first embodiment, the quality of the program is determined in consideration of the action schedule and situation (position information, etc.) of the viewing candidate without considering the viewing attitude of the viewer. May be.

  Furthermore, the software that implements the information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment is the following program. In other words, the program causes the computer to receive a viewing request and a viewer identification information, and one or more viewer identification information corresponding to one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit. The viewing tendency information is read from the storage medium, and one or more viewing candidates who are viewers other than the viewer who has input the viewing request using the one or more viewing tendency information are targeted for the viewing request. Related to a viewing request predicted program determining unit that determines one or more viewing request predicted programs that are programs that may be requested during the broadcast time of the program, and a program that is the target of the viewing request received by the receiving unit Using the viewing tendency information of the program to be played and the viewing tendency information of the program related to the one or more viewing request prediction programs determined by the viewing request prediction program determination unit, according to the stored quality constraint information. A quality determining unit that determines the video quality of the program that is the target of the viewing request received by the receiving unit, program identification information that identifies the program, and quality information that is information about the video quality determined by the quality determining unit A distribution request transmitting unit that transmits a distribution request for the program to the program distribution server device; a program relay receiving unit that receives the program from the program distribution server device in response to the transmission of the distribution request for the program; A program for causing a program received by the program relay receiving unit to function as a program relay transmitting unit that transmits the program to the program output device.

  Further, in the above program, the program attribute having the computer, the viewing request prediction program determination unit, the program identification information of the broadcast program, and the time zone information indicating the broadcast time zone of the program identified by the program identification information A program guide information storing means for storing program guide information consisting of one or more pieces of program information, and a requested program time zone information acquiring means for acquiring time zone information paired with the program identification information of the viewing request. The behavior status is information indicating the behavior and status of each viewing candidate identified by the one or more viewing candidate identification information in the time zone indicated by the time zone information acquired by the requested program time zone information acquisition means Action status information acquisition means for acquiring information and one or more viewing candidates who are viewers other than the viewer who has input the viewing request, acquired by the behavior status information acquisition means One or more viewing candidate identification information that is information for identifying one or more viewing candidates who can view the program in the time zone indicated by the time zone information acquired by the requested program time zone information acquisition means from the motion status information Information about the program broadcast during the broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed by searching the viewing candidate identification information acquiring means and the program guide information storage means using the time zone information. The output candidate program information acquiring means uses one or more program attributes included in one or more viewing tendency information corresponding to the viewing candidate identification information, and the output candidate program information acquiring means for acquiring certain output candidate program information. From the acquired output candidate program information, viewing request prediction program information that is information about a program that may be viewed by one or more viewing candidates identified by the viewing candidate identification information is acquired. Program for functioning as comprising a hearing request prediction program information acquisition means, a.

  In each of the above embodiments, each process (each function) may be realized by centralized processing by a single device (system), or by distributed processing by a plurality of devices. May be.

  FIG. 33 shows the external appearance of a computer that executes the program described in this specification to realize the server device and the program distribution server device of the various embodiments described above. The above-described embodiments can be realized by computer hardware and a computer program executed thereon. FIG. 33 is an overview of the computer system 340, and FIG. 34 is a block diagram of the computer system 340.

  In FIG. 33, the computer system 340 includes a computer 341 including a FD (Flexible Disk) drive and a CD-ROM (Compact Disk Read Only Memory) drive, a keyboard 342, a mouse 343, and a monitor 344.

  34, in addition to the FD drive 3411 and the CD-ROM drive 3412, the computer 341 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 3413, a bus 3414 connected to the CPU 3413, the CD-ROM drive 3412, and the FD drive 3411, and a boot. A ROM (Read-Only Memory) 3415 for storing a program such as an up program, and a RAM (Random Access Memory) connected to the CPU 3413 for temporarily storing instructions of an application program and providing a temporary storage space 3416 and a hard disk 3417 for storing application programs, system programs, and data. Although not shown here, the computer 341 may further include a network card that provides connection to the LAN.

  A program that causes the computer system 340 to execute the functions of the information processing apparatus according to the above-described embodiment is stored in the CD-ROM 3501 or the FD 3502, inserted into the CD-ROM drive 3412 or the FD drive 3411, and further stored in the hard disk 3417. May be forwarded. Alternatively, the program may be transmitted to the computer 341 via a network (not shown) and stored in the hard disk 3417. The program is loaded into the RAM 3416 at the time of execution. The program may be loaded directly from the CD-ROM 3501, the FD 3502, or the network.

  The program does not necessarily include an operating system (OS) or a third-party program that causes the computer 341 to execute the functions of the information processing apparatus according to the above-described embodiment. The program only needs to include an instruction portion that calls an appropriate function (module) in a controlled manner and obtains a desired result. How the computer system 340 operates is well known and will not be described in detail.

  In the above program, in a transmission step for transmitting information, a reception step for receiving information, etc., processing performed by hardware, for example, processing performed by a modem or an interface card in the transmission step (only performed by hardware). Not included) is not included.

  Further, the computer that executes the program may be singular or plural. That is, centralized processing may be performed, or distributed processing may be performed.

  Further, in each of the above embodiments, it goes without saying that two or more communication units existing in one apparatus may be physically realized by one medium.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications are possible, and it goes without saying that these are also included in the scope of the present invention.

  As described above, the program output system according to the present invention allows a plurality of programs to be distributed to a plurality of viewers under the restriction of video quality within a certain range for a plurality of distributed programs. A plurality of programs can be distributed by adjusting the video quality. It is effective as a content distribution system.

Conceptual diagram of a program output system according to Embodiment 1 Block diagram of the program output system A flowchart for explaining the operation of the program output device Flow chart for explaining the operation of the server device A flowchart for explaining the operation of the viewing request prediction program determination process Flowchart for explaining the operation of the quality determination process A flowchart for explaining the operation of the program distribution server device Figure showing the same viewer information management table The figure which shows the same program guide information management table Figure showing the viewing tendency information management table Figure showing the program storage table Figure showing the same output candidate program management table The figure which shows the specific viewer viewing tendency information management table The figure which shows the viewing-and-listening request prediction program management table Figure showing the quality information management table Block diagram of a program output system in the second embodiment A flowchart for explaining the operation of the viewing tendency information acquisition apparatus A flowchart for explaining the operation of the viewing attitude information acquisition process Flow chart for explaining the operation of the server device A flowchart for explaining the operation of the viewing request prediction program determination process Flow chart for explaining a method for calculating the likelihood of viewing possibility Flowchart for explaining the operation of the quality determination process A flowchart for explaining the operation of the viewing attitude information acquisition process Flow chart for explaining the operation of the same quality mediation processing Figure showing the viewing tendency information management table The figure which shows the specific viewer viewing tendency information management table The figure which shows the viewing requester viewing tendency information management table The figure which shows the viewing tendency information The figure which shows the representative value of the viewing attitude information Block diagram of a program output system in the third embodiment Flow chart for explaining the operation of the server device Figure showing the same schedule management table External view of a computer realizing the server device and the program distribution server device Block diagram of a computer system for realizing the server device and the program distribution server device

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Program output device 12,162,302 Server apparatus 13 Program delivery server apparatus 161 Viewing tendency information acquisition apparatus 1101 Reception part 1102 Viewer identification information acquisition part 1103 Request transmission part 1104 Program reception part 1105 Program output part 1201 Viewing tendency information storage part 1202 Request receiving unit 1203, 30203 Viewing request predicted program determining unit 1204 Quality constraint information storing unit 1205, 16205 Quality determining unit 1206 Distribution request transmitting unit 1207 Program relay receiving unit 1208 Program relay transmitting unit 1301 Program storing unit 1302 Distribution request receiving unit 1303 Program acquisition unit 1304 Program distribution unit 1621 Viewing tendency information storage unit 11021 Imaging unit 11022 Viewer information storage unit 11023 Viewer video recognition unit 11024 Viewer identification information acquisition unit 12031 Program guide information storage Stage 12032 Requested program time zone information acquisition unit 12033 Output candidate program information acquisition unit 12034 Viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit 16101 Viewing attitude information acquisition unit 16102 Viewing tendency information configuration unit 16103 Viewing trend information transmission unit 16209 Viewing trend information reception unit 16210 Viewing Trend information storage unit 62056 Viewing requester viewing posture information acquisition unit 161011 Viewing frequency information acquisition unit 161012 Distance information acquisition unit 161013 Command acquisition unit 161014 Viewing style information acquisition unit 162051 Viewing method information acquisition unit 162052 Viewing posture information selection unit 162053 Predictive viewing posture Information acquisition means 162054 View request program attribute acquisition means 162055 View requester program attribute acquisition means 162056 View requester viewing attitude information acquisition means 162057 Quality determining means 302,031 behavioral state information acquisition unit 302032 viewing candidate identification information obtaining unit 3020311 schedule information storing means 3,020,312 viewer candidate position information acquisition unit 3020321 program output position information storage means 3,020,322 viewable determination means

Claims (18)

A program output system comprising a program output device that outputs a program, a server device that receives the program and sends it to the program output device, and a program distribution server device that distributes the program,
The program output device includes:
A reception unit that receives a viewing request having program identification information, which is a program viewing request from a viewer and is information for identifying the program;
A viewer identification information acquisition unit that acquires viewer identification information that is information for identifying a viewer who has input the viewing request;
A request transmitter for transmitting the viewing request and the viewer identification information to the server device;
A program receiving unit for receiving a program corresponding to the viewing request from the server device;
A program output unit for outputting the program received by the program receiving unit;
The server device
A viewing tendency information storage unit for storing at least two pieces of viewing tendency information having viewer identification information for identifying viewers of the program and viewing history information that is information related to the viewing history of the viewer's program;
A request receiving unit for receiving the viewing request and the viewer identification information from the program output device;
One or more viewers other than the viewer who input the viewing request using one or more viewing tendency information corresponding to the one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit. A viewing request prediction program determination unit that determines one or more viewing request prediction programs that are programs that a viewing candidate may request to view during the broadcast time of the program that is the target of the viewing request;
A quality constraint information storage unit that stores quality constraint information that is information about constraints on video quality when two or more programs are received simultaneously;
The viewing tendency information of the program related to the program that is the target of the viewing request received by the receiving unit, and the viewing tendency information of the program related to the one or more viewing request predicted programs determined by the viewing request predicted program determination unit. A quality determination unit that determines the video quality of the program that is the target of the viewing request received by the reception unit according to the quality constraint information;
A distribution request transmitting unit for transmitting a program distribution request including program identification information for identifying a program and quality information which is information about video quality determined by the quality determining unit to the program distribution server device;
In response to transmission of the program distribution request, a program relay receiving unit that receives the program from the program distribution server device;
A program relay transmission unit that transmits the program received by the program relay reception unit to the program output device;
The program distribution server device
A program storage unit storing one or more programs;
A distribution request receiving unit for receiving, from the server device, a program distribution request including program identification information for identifying a program and quality information that is information about video quality constituting the program;
A program acquisition unit that acquires from the program storage unit a program identified by the program identification information included in the distribution request received by the distribution request reception unit;
A program output system comprising a program distribution unit that distributes a program acquired by the program acquisition unit to the server device at a video quality indicated by quality information included in the distribution request. The viewer identification information acquisition unit
Photographing means for photographing a viewer and acquiring a video of the viewer;
Viewer information storage means for storing at least two pieces of viewer information including viewer identification information and viewer images;
Viewer video recognition means for recognizing the viewer's video stored in the viewer information storage means, which is a video that matches the video of the viewer shot by the shooting means;
The viewer video recognition means comprises viewer identification information acquisition means for acquiring viewer identification information that is paired with a viewer video recognized as a video that matches the video of the viewer taken by the imaging means. The program output system according to claim 1. The viewing request prediction program determining unit
Program attributes having program identification information of a program to be broadcast, time zone information indicating a broadcast time zone of the program identified by the program identification information, and genre information indicating a genre of the program identified by the program identification information Program guide information storage means for storing program guide information consisting of one or more pieces of program information,
Requested program time zone information acquisition means for acquiring time zone information paired with program identification information included in the viewing request;
Output candidate program information that retrieves the program guide information storage means using the time zone information and obtains output candidate program information that is information about a program broadcast during the broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed Acquisition means;
The output candidate program information acquisition means has acquired using one or more program attributes of one or more viewing tendency information corresponding to one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit. A viewing request prediction program that is information about a program that can be viewed by one or more viewing candidates identified by the viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit from the output candidate program information. 2. The program output system according to claim 1, further comprising viewing request prediction program information acquisition means for acquiring information. The viewing tendency information stored in the viewing tendency information storage unit is:
Viewing posture information that is information indicating the viewer's viewing posture with respect to the program being output;
Has the program attributes of the output program,
The viewing request prediction program determining unit
A program storing program guide information including program identification information of a program to be broadcast and one or more program information having program attribute having time zone information indicating a broadcast time zone of the program identified by the program identification information Table information storage means;
Requested program time zone information acquisition means for acquiring time zone information paired with program identification information included in the viewing request;
Output candidate program information that retrieves the program guide information storage means using the time zone information and obtains output candidate program information that is information about a program broadcast during the broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed Acquisition means;
The output candidate program information acquisition means has acquired using one or more program attributes of one or more viewing tendency information corresponding to one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit. Information about a program that may be viewed by one or more viewing candidates identified by one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit from the output candidate program information; Comprising viewing request predicted program information acquisition means for acquiring viewing request predicted program information having program attributes,
The quality determination unit
For each viewing request predicted program information acquired by the viewing request predicted program information acquisition means, one or more viewers predicted to view a program corresponding to the viewing request predicted program information correspond to another program viewed. Viewing method information acquisition means for acquiring one or more program attributes of each viewing tendency information and one or more viewing attitude information from the viewing tendency information storage unit;
One or more viewing attitudes that are selected from one or more program attributes acquired by the viewing method information acquisition means and that match the program attributes of the viewing request predicted program information, and are paired with the selected program attributes Viewing attitude information selection means for selecting information;
Predicted viewing attitude information acquisition means for acquiring predicted viewing attitude information, which is viewing attitude information of a program corresponding to the viewing request predicted program information, using one or more viewing attitude information selected by the viewing attitude information selection means;
Viewing request program attribute acquisition means for acquiring the program attribute of the program identified by the program identification information included in the viewing request received by the request receiving unit from the program guide information storage means;
It is a program attribute that matches the program attribute acquired by the viewing request program attribute acquisition means, and is information about the program viewed by the viewer identified by the viewer identification information acquired by the viewer identification information acquisition unit 1 Viewing requester program attribute acquisition means for acquiring one or more program attributes of the above viewing tendency information;
Viewing requester viewing attitude information acquisition means for acquiring viewing attitude information of a program corresponding to one or more program attributes acquired by the viewing requester program attribute acquisition means;
In accordance with the quality constraint information, the viewing request target received by the receiving unit using the viewing posture information acquired by the viewing requester viewing posture information acquiring unit and the predicted viewing posture information acquired by the predicted viewing posture information acquiring unit, 2. The program output system according to claim 1, further comprising quality determining means for determining the video quality of the resulting program. In addition to the program output device, the server device, and the program distribution server device, further comprising a viewing tendency information acquisition device that acquires viewing tendency information,
The viewing tendency information acquisition device includes:
A viewing attitude information acquisition unit that acquires viewing attitude information that is information indicating a viewing attitude that can be acquired from the behavior of the viewer with respect to the program output by the program output unit of the program output device;
Viewing tendency information is configured using the viewer identification information acquired by the viewer identification information acquisition unit, the program attributes of the program output by the program output unit, and the viewing posture information acquired by the viewing posture information acquisition unit. Viewing tendency information composition unit,
A viewing tendency information sending unit for sending viewing tendency information configured by the viewing tendency information configuration unit to the server device;
The server device
A viewing trend information receiving unit that receives viewing trend information from the viewing trend information acquisition device;
The program output system according to claim 4, further comprising a viewing tendency information storage unit that stores the viewing tendency information received by the viewing tendency information reception unit in the viewing tendency information storage unit. The viewing attitude information is
Attention level information, which is information indicating the degree to which the viewer is paying attention to the program being output,
The viewing attitude information acquisition unit
Viewing frequency information acquisition means for acquiring viewing frequency information, which is information about the frequency of the viewer's video taken by the camera, which is information about the frequency of the program that is being viewed by the viewer.
Comprising one or more means of distance information acquisition means for acquiring distance information which is a distance between the viewer and the display outputting the program;
The program output system according to claim 5, wherein the attention level information is configured using at least one of the viewing frequency information and the distance information. The viewing attitude information is
Viewing style information, which is information for specifying a viewing style when a viewer views a program,
The viewing attitude information acquisition unit
Command acquisition means for acquiring one or more commands to switch channels;
Using at least one command acquired by the command acquisition means, comprising at least a viewing style information acquisition means for determining whether it is a concentrated viewing or a non-concentrated viewing and acquiring viewing style information that is information on whether or not the viewing is concentrated The program output system according to claim 5. The viewing request prediction program determining unit
A program storing program guide information including program identification information of a program to be broadcast and one or more program information having program attribute having time zone information indicating a broadcast time zone of the program identified by the program identification information Table information storage means;
Requested program time zone information acquisition means for acquiring time zone information paired with program identification information included in the viewing request;
Behavior status information that is information indicating the behavior and status of each viewing candidate identified by the one or more viewing candidate identification information in the time zone indicated by the time zone information acquired by the requested program time zone information acquisition means Action status information acquisition means for acquiring
The time zone acquired by the requested program time zone information acquisition means from the behavior situation information obtained by the behavior situation information acquisition means, which is one or more viewing candidates other than the viewer who has input the viewing request. Viewing candidate identification information acquisition means for acquiring one or more viewing candidate identification information, which is information for identifying one or more viewing candidates who can view the program in the time zone indicated by the information;
Output candidate program information that retrieves the program guide information storage means using the time zone information and obtains output candidate program information that is information about a program broadcast during the broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed Acquisition means;
Identification with the viewing candidate identification information from the output candidate program information acquired by the output candidate program information acquisition means using one or more program attributes of one or more viewing tendency information corresponding to the viewing candidate identification information The program output system according to claim 1, further comprising: viewing request predicted program information acquisition means for acquiring viewing request predicted program information that is information on a program that can be viewed by one or more viewing candidates. The behavior status information acquisition means includes
A schedule information storage unit that stores schedule information indicating an action schedule of each viewing candidate identified by each viewer identification information in a pair with one or more viewer identification information;
The viewing candidate identification information acquisition means includes:
Using the schedule information indicating the action schedule of each viewing candidate, each viewing candidate identified by the one or more viewing candidate identification information is obtained by the requested program time zone information acquisition means by the time zone information. 9. The program output system according to claim 8, further comprising a viewability determination unit that determines whether or not the program can be viewed in a time period indicated by. The behavior status information acquisition means includes
Viewing candidate position information acquisition means for receiving position information that is information on the current position of each viewing candidate identified by one or more viewer identification information;
The viewing candidate identification information acquisition means includes:
Program output position information storage means for storing program output position information, which is information on the position at which the program is output;
Using the position information of each viewing candidate acquired by the viewing candidate position information acquisition unit and the program output position information, each viewing candidate obtains time zone information acquired by the requested program time zone information acquisition unit. 9. The program output system according to claim 8, further comprising viewing possibility determination means for determining whether or not the program can be viewed in the indicated time zone. The server apparatus which comprises the program output system in any one of Claims 1-10. A viewing tendency information storage unit for storing at least two pieces of viewing tendency information having viewer identification information for identifying viewers of the program and viewing history information that is information related to the viewing history of the viewer's program;
A request receiving unit for receiving the viewing request and the viewer identification information from a program output device;
One or more viewers other than the viewer who input the viewing request using one or more viewing tendency information corresponding to the one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit. A viewing request prediction program determination unit that determines one or more viewing request prediction programs that are programs that a viewing candidate may request to view during the broadcast time of the program that is the target of the viewing request;
A quality constraint information storage unit that stores quality constraint information that is information about constraints on video quality when two or more programs are received simultaneously;
The viewing tendency information of the program related to the program that is the target of the viewing request received by the receiving unit, and the viewing tendency information of the program related to the one or more viewing request predicted programs determined by the viewing request predicted program determination unit. A quality determination unit that determines the video quality of the program that is the target of the viewing request received by the reception unit according to the quality constraint information;
A distribution request transmitting unit for transmitting a program distribution request including program identification information for identifying a program and quality information that is information about video quality determined by the quality determining unit to a program distribution server device;
In response to transmission of the program distribution request, a program relay receiving unit that receives the program from the program distribution server device;
A server device comprising a program relay transmission unit for transmitting a program received by the program relay reception unit to the program output device. The viewing tendency information stored in the viewing tendency information storage unit is:
Viewing posture information that is information indicating the viewer's viewing posture with respect to the program being output;
Has the program attributes of the output program,
The viewing request prediction program determining unit
A program storing program guide information including program identification information of a program to be broadcast and one or more program information having program attribute having time zone information indicating a broadcast time zone of the program identified by the program identification information Table information storage means;
Requested program time zone information acquisition means for acquiring time zone information paired with program identification information included in the viewing request;
Output candidate program information that retrieves the program guide information storage means using the time zone information and obtains output candidate program information that is information about a program broadcast during the broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed Acquisition means;
The output candidate program information acquisition means has acquired using one or more program attributes of one or more viewing tendency information corresponding to one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit. Information about a program that may be viewed by one or more viewing candidates identified by one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit from the output candidate program information; Comprising viewing request predicted program information acquisition means for acquiring viewing request predicted program information having program attributes,
The quality determination unit
For each viewing request predicted program information acquired by the viewing request predicted program information acquisition means, one or more viewers predicted to view a program corresponding to the viewing request predicted program information correspond to another program viewed. Viewing method information acquisition means for acquiring one or more program attributes of each viewing tendency information and one or more viewing attitude information from the viewing tendency information storage unit;
One or more viewing attitudes that are selected from one or more program attributes acquired by the viewing method information acquisition means and that match the program attributes of the viewing request predicted program information, and are paired with the selected program attributes Viewing attitude information selection means for selecting information;
Predicted viewing attitude information acquisition means for acquiring predicted viewing attitude information, which is viewing attitude information of a program corresponding to the viewing request predicted program information, using one or more viewing attitude information selected by the viewing attitude information selection means;
Viewing request program attribute acquisition means for acquiring the program attribute of the program identified by the program identification information included in the viewing request received by the request receiving unit from the program guide information storage means;
It is a program attribute that matches the program attribute acquired by the viewing request program attribute acquisition means, and is information about the program viewed by the viewer identified by the viewer identification information acquired by the viewer identification information acquisition unit 1 Viewing requester program attribute acquisition means for acquiring one or more program attributes of the above viewing tendency information;
Viewing requester viewing attitude information acquisition means for acquiring viewing attitude information of a program corresponding to one or more program attributes acquired by the viewing requester program attribute acquisition means;
In accordance with the quality constraint information, the viewing request target received by the receiving unit using the viewing posture information acquired by the viewing requester viewing posture information acquiring unit and the predicted viewing posture information acquired by the predicted viewing posture information acquiring unit, 13. The server device according to claim 12, further comprising quality determining means for determining the video quality of the program that has become. The viewing request prediction program determining unit
A program storing program guide information including program identification information of a program to be broadcast and one or more program information having program attribute having time zone information indicating a broadcast time zone of the program identified by the program identification information Table information storage means;
Requested program time zone information acquisition means for acquiring time zone information paired with program identification information included in the viewing request;
Behavior status information that is information indicating the behavior and status of each viewing candidate identified by the one or more viewing candidate identification information in the time zone indicated by the time zone information acquired by the requested program time zone information acquisition means Action status information acquisition means for acquiring
The time zone acquired by the requested program time zone information acquisition means from the behavior situation information obtained by the behavior situation information acquisition means, which is one or more viewing candidates other than the viewer who has input the viewing request. Viewing candidate identification information acquisition means for acquiring one or more viewing candidate identification information, which is information for identifying one or more viewing candidates who can view the program in the time zone indicated by the information;
Output candidate program information that retrieves the program guide information storage means using the time zone information and obtains output candidate program information that is information about a program broadcast during the broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed Acquisition means;
Identification with the viewing candidate identification information from the output candidate program information acquired by the output candidate program information acquisition means using one or more program attributes of one or more viewing tendency information corresponding to the viewing candidate identification information 13. The server apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising viewing request predicted program information acquisition means for acquiring viewing request predicted program information that is information on a program that is likely to be viewed by one or more viewing candidates. A request receiving unit for receiving a viewing request and viewer identification information;
One or more viewing tendency information corresponding to one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit is read from a storage medium, and the viewing request is made using the one or more viewing tendency information. One or more viewing candidates that are viewers other than the input viewer may receive one or more viewing request prediction programs that may be requested to be viewed during the broadcast time of the target program. A viewing request prediction program determination unit to be determined;
The viewing tendency information of the program related to the program that is the target of the viewing request received by the receiving unit, and the viewing tendency information of the program related to the one or more viewing request predicted programs determined by the viewing request predicted program determination unit. A quality determination unit that determines the video quality of the program that is the target of the viewing request received by the reception unit according to the stored quality constraint information;
A distribution request transmitting unit for transmitting a program distribution request including program identification information for identifying a program and quality information which is information about video quality determined by the quality determining unit to the program distribution server device;
In response to transmission of the program distribution request, a program relay receiving unit that receives the program from the program distribution server device;
The program for functioning as a program relay transmission part which transmits the program which the said program relay reception part received to the said program output device. The program according to claim 15, wherein
The viewing tendency information is
Viewing posture information that is information indicating the viewer's viewing posture with respect to the program being output;
Has the program attributes of the output program,
Computer
The viewing request prediction program determining unit
A program storing program guide information including program identification information of a program to be broadcast and one or more program information having program attribute having time zone information indicating a broadcast time zone of the program identified by the program identification information Table information storage means;
Requested program time zone information acquisition means for acquiring time zone information paired with program identification information included in the viewing request;
Output candidate program information that retrieves the program guide information storage means using the time zone information and obtains output candidate program information that is information about a program broadcast during the broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed Acquisition means;
The output candidate program information acquisition means has acquired using one or more program attributes of one or more viewing tendency information corresponding to one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit. Information about a program that may be viewed by one or more viewing candidates identified by one or more viewer identification information excluding the viewer identification information received by the request receiving unit from the output candidate program information; It functions as comprising a viewing request predicted program information acquisition means for acquiring viewing request predicted program information having a program attribute,
The quality determination unit
For each viewing request predicted program information acquired by the viewing request predicted program information acquisition means, one or more viewers predicted to view a program corresponding to the viewing request predicted program information correspond to another program viewed. Viewing method information acquisition means for acquiring one or more program attributes of each viewing tendency information and one or more viewing attitude information from the viewing tendency information storage unit;
One or more viewing attitudes that are selected from one or more program attributes acquired by the viewing method information acquisition means and that match the program attributes of the viewing request predicted program information, and are paired with the selected program attributes Viewing attitude information selection means for selecting information;
Predicted viewing attitude information acquisition means for acquiring predicted viewing attitude information, which is viewing attitude information of a program corresponding to the viewing request predicted program information, using one or more viewing attitude information selected by the viewing attitude information selection means;
Viewing request program attribute acquisition means for acquiring the program attribute of the program identified by the program identification information included in the viewing request received by the request receiving unit from the program guide information storage means;
It is a program attribute that matches the program attribute acquired by the viewing request program attribute acquisition means, and is information about the program viewed by the viewer identified by the viewer identification information acquired by the viewer identification information acquisition unit 1 Viewing requester program attribute acquisition means for acquiring one or more program attributes of the above viewing tendency information;
Viewing requester viewing attitude information acquisition means for acquiring viewing attitude information of a program corresponding to one or more program attributes acquired by the viewing requester program attribute acquisition means;
In accordance with the quality constraint information, the viewing request target received by the receiving unit using the viewing posture information acquired by the viewing requester viewing posture information acquiring unit and the predicted viewing posture information acquired by the predicted viewing posture information acquiring unit, 16. The program according to claim 15, wherein the program is made to function as comprising quality determining means for determining the video quality of the program that has become. The program according to claim 15, wherein
Computer
The viewing request prediction program determination unit,
A program storing program guide information including program identification information of a program to be broadcast and one or more program information having program attribute having time zone information indicating a broadcast time zone of the program identified by the program identification information Table information storage means;
Requested program time zone information acquisition means for acquiring time zone information paired with program identification information included in the viewing request;
Behavior status information that is information indicating the behavior and status of each viewing candidate identified by the one or more viewing candidate identification information in the time zone indicated by the time zone information acquired by the requested program time zone information acquisition means Action status information acquisition means for acquiring
The time zone acquired by the requested program time zone information acquisition means from the behavior situation information obtained by the behavior situation information acquisition means, which is one or more viewing candidates other than the viewer who has input the viewing request. Viewing candidate identification information acquisition means for acquiring one or more viewing candidate identification information, which is information for identifying one or more viewing candidates who can view the program in the time zone indicated by the information;
Output candidate program information that retrieves the program guide information storage means using the time zone information and obtains output candidate program information that is information about a program broadcast during the broadcast time of the program requested to be viewed Acquisition means;
Identification with the viewing candidate identification information from the output candidate program information acquired by the output candidate program information acquisition means using one or more program attributes of one or more viewing tendency information corresponding to the viewing candidate identification information 16. The apparatus according to claim 15, further comprising a viewing request predicted program information acquisition unit configured to acquire viewing request predicted program information that is information on a program that can be viewed by one or more viewing candidates. program. A program output method executed by a request reception unit, a viewing request prediction program determination unit, a quality determination unit, a distribution request transmission unit, a program reception unit, and a program output unit,
Receiving a viewing request and viewer identification information by the request receiving unit;
The viewing request prediction program determining unit reads one or more viewing tendency information corresponding to the one or more viewer identification information excluding the received viewer identification information from a storage medium, and uses the one or more viewing tendency information. One or more viewing candidates who are viewers other than the viewer who has input the viewing request are one or more programs that may request viewing during the broadcast time of the program requested by the viewing request. Determining a viewing request prediction program;
The quality determining unit stores the viewing tendency information of the program related to the received program for which the viewing request is received and the viewing tendency information of the program related to the determined one or more predicted viewing request programs. Determining the video quality of the program subject to the received viewing request in accordance with the quality constraint information being received;
Transmitting, to the program distribution server device, a program distribution request including program identification information for identifying a program and quality information that is information about the determined video quality by the distribution request transmitting unit;
Receiving the program from the program distribution server device in response to transmission of the program distribution request by the program receiving unit;
A program output method comprising the step of outputting the received program by the program output unit.